The NCAA could have moved the 3-point line back to Lake Travis. A.J. Abrams still would have kept firing threes.
The senior guard led the No. 7 Longhorns to a season-opening 68-38 victory over Stetson by making five of his nine 3-point attempts to finish with 21 points. It was the 18th time in Abrams’ career that he had five or more 3-pointers in a game.
“Like I’ve been saying, it’s just a couple of inches back,” Abrams said. “For us shooters, it’s not that big of an adjustment.”
Abrams — the assumed leader of this year’s basketball team — sparked a Texas offense that needed a boost badly. Despite the 30-point margin of victory, head coach Rick Barnes wasn’t pleased with the way his team controlled the pace of play.
“It really surprised me tonight that we didn’t run the way we’ve been running in the past,” Barnes said. “That was the slowest pace we’ve played so far, and I can’t really tell you why.”
As good as the defense was — holding Stetson to just 2-for-18 shooting to start the game — the offense took some time to get going. A lot of it may have been because of the loss of point guard D.J. Augustin.
“We’re making it,” Abrams said. “You can’t replace a guy like him, but we’re doing a pretty good job.”
In fact, the Longhorns haven’t been without a true point guard for some time. The last two seasons, Augustin controlled the offense while Cleveland Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson was at the helm the two years prior to that.
But Barnes has no worries about who’s going to control his team this season. With Abrams as the main point guard, junior Justin Mason and sophomore Dogus Balbay will also split time at the position.
“I feel good on that,” Barnes said. “I thought tonight A.J. did a good job. When we switched over, I thought Justin did a better job. And obviously when Dogus comes back it will give us somebody who can push the tempo and Varez [Ward] can play the point too. I’m not concerned with that.”
Abrams’ teammates have full faith in his abilities and they know he’s more than ready to fill the void left by Augustin.
“It’s more of a team effort now,” Connor Atchley said. “But A.J.’s our guy.”
Atchley, the other senior leader alongside Abrams this season, was also an aberration offensively for the Longhorns, going a perfect 5-for-5 to finish with 14 points.
“I mean I’m going on five years so I don’t know if first game jitters should be a big deal,” Atchley said.
The Longhorns will take on Tulane at home Tuesday.
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