Gained a new appreciation for Aj

T

TexanWolv

1,000+ Posts
No, not because he made all those threes. Two things happened...First, there was a play where we had great ball rotation and both Mason and Balbay would have had a great look at the three if they could shoot it. The third guy that rotation would have gone to was AJ but his man never even thought of going to cover Balbay. Secondly, last week ESPN Classic showed the Texas-OSU game from Durants year. In both these things I realized how much pressure AJ is put under every night as the only consistent range shooter on this team. Every night the other team is basically saying "guard that guy on the perimeter and forget everyone else". Watching him in that OSU game from a couple years ago...He had so much more freedom to move around because other guys on the team could hit from range.

I know this is a bit of a ramble...But I just wanted to say thanks, AJ.
 
AJ is the best. Keep it going.
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A strong showing against Duke whether its a win or loss coupled with his performance last night will surely help him when it comes to NBA draft. At least I hope so.
 
I think his reemergence has alot to do with Pittman stepping up. From what I've seen, it seems like AJ was the only "real" scoring threat all season, and about half-way throught Big12 play, everybody seemed to figure that out.

But, Now with Dex & it looks like Ward is stepping up too. Now if Balbay can hit a few more NBA Three's, maybe AJ will have more than .2 seconds to shoot before he is doubled up.
 
It's too bad it took 4 years and his likely 2nd to last game as a UT player....

He plays hard but has so much attention b/c he is only our outside shooter that he has been inconsistent this year (but like I said b/c he is our only outside shooter and Balbay gets no respect outside of 5 feet from the bucket).
 
4 years? AJ has been a great shooter his entire life. Hes made tons of clutch shots to help us in close games. One of the best players to put on the burnt orange.
 
I may be wrong, but I think the Fied was saying that it was too bad it took the OP 4 years to appreciate AJ. The funny thing about the original post's mention about Durant's year is that in the game against Arkansas that year, Arkansas used a box-and-one against AJ, with Durant on the floor. That's how much respect he gets from opposing coaches.

I just hope that if AJ has a bad shooting night against Duke tomorrow and we lose, that AJ's detractors won't come on here and slam him like they've done in the past. I hope that they will respect him and what he's done here over the last 4 years to refrain from slamming him after his last game, whenever that may be.
 
SL, I'm not sure if AJ snubbed your autograph request at some point, but you've had a grudge against him since at least his sophomore year, when you started your "AJ shouldn't start" campaign, to which I replied that AJ would start every game for the remainder of his career at UT.

Here we are 3 years later, and AJ just set the Big 12 career record for games played, and has started every game since his sophomore year. He's 4th in UT career scoring (and 6th in Big 12), and top ten in UT career steals. He is now tied (with JJ Redick, you may have heard of him) for fourth in the history of the NCAA tourney in 3-pointers made, and has averaged over 20 ppg in his last 7 NCAA tourney games.

Despite all of this, you refuse to give him his due, call him "fool's gold," and claim that UT will be better without him because it will be "addition by subtraction." My question for you is, how many games do you think UT would've won this year if AJ didn't come back for his senior year?

And finally, if I promise to get you an autographed picture of AJ, will you finally admit that he had an OK career at UT?
 
To respond to the person saying "it's about time" that I started appreciating AJ...I never said that I never appreciated him. I've liked AJ his whole career here at Texas. Last night, and watching the OSU game, I just simply was able to see how much freedom he had in the past compared to what he has dealt with this year. It helped shine a new light on how difficult it has been for him to shine in his senior year.
 
Not that SLX needs defenders, but he was one of the first people on this board to talk about AJ as a four-year contributor to the UT program if he ended up there. That goes back about six years. I can pretty much guarantee that he doesn't dislike AJ.
 
Why is it so important to you that I have a high opinion of AJ Abrams?

I will be thrilled when he's gone. He's a terrific shooter with a lot of unrealized potential in nearly every other aspect of his game because, at his core, he's simply an incredibly selfish player. That's been in evidence the last 3 years.

The "AJ shouldn't start campaign" as you call it, was hardly deserving of the name. Prior to the season I said Abrams would be better coming off the bench as a 6th man. I still think that would have been a more productive role for his career. I've never considered my posts on this bulletin board as some kind of campaign on my part. It's simply me posting some of my thoughts. I happen to have some very strong opinions regarding AJ Abrams, but they're opinions that in my mind he's earned through his selfish play.

I didn't feel this way about him when he was recruited. I posted on here how thrilled I was to have him on board. I didn't post critical thoughts of him after his freshman season. Anything regarding not wanting him as a starter had more to do with starting a short backcourt, and fielding a poor perimeter defensive team. Texas did indeed start a short backcourt and fielded a poor perimeter defensive team his sophomore and junior years. Bringing Abrams off the bench wouldn't have solved that, but it would've helped in that regard.

Over time, it became my opinion that Abrams' worst selfish tendencies could perhaps be curbed with some time on the bench.

None of that transpired, so there's been little reason for Abrams to fundamentally change who he is as a player. So be it. As fans we get the good with the bad. For me, it's not worth it. For you, you think everyone should be lauding him for his one talent, no matter how much damage his selfish play may cause in other areas.

As far as your question, it's my opinion Texas would have had a better season with no Abrams on the team than they did with him on it. Too often players stood around waiting for Abrams to do something. The vacuum from his absence would have allowed other players to develop faster. The team would have been better defensively. Mostly, Abrams' absence would have kept Barnes from using him as a crutch, a behavior on Barnes' part I've found highly irritating.

Abrams has obviously had a very good career at Texas. No one should need some kind of validation from me about that. Nonetheless, for me his career will always be about what he could have contributed to his team through more unselfish play.
 
Well let's not irritate you.Wow.

Other players may or may not have developed, but to pin that on AJ being selfish is a bit of a reach.

Look, we all know AJ takes some horrible shots at times. But would you rather have that, or is a better option to have Justin, Dogus, etc, taking a "good" outside shot? SOMEONE has to eventually take a few of those shots, and since we lost Conner as an option we're somewhat limited.

I know you like Johnson a lot, but you can't really believe that AJ had anything at all to do with his progress, or that it took 3/4 of the year to find Dex as a primary option.

It is what it is, this team was over-rated this year and should have been about a #20 all year, and did what they could last year. Or was it AJ's fault we lost to Memphis, too?
 
justhookit,

One of the fun things about speculation is that we don't know. There's a tenet on Hornfans that in hindsight says, "What would we have done without AJ?" And yeah, on the face of it, it seems like the team would have been in a world of ****.

Maybe they would have. But I'm not willing to concede that point, simply because we don't know. I can understand why people would feel that way. He's a tremendous shooter, and there were games --- including this last one against Minnesota --- where he's just taken over.

However, just like I wasn't willing to concede the Longhorn team would be worse off with Durant gone, I'd say the same thing about AJ. When the entire offense revolves so much around a player, it's easy to say he'd be missed if he's gone. What isn't easy to determine, is how much other players would have stepped into the vacuum.

I think Texas would have been a much worse outside shooting team with Abrams gone, but maybe Mason doesn't hit the tank with his shooting. Maybe Balbay shoots more. Maybe Ward comes on faster. Maybe Pittman starts showing what he's capable of sooner. Maybe Atchley doesn't have his funk.

I have no idea what might have happened. However, I'm not as declarative about what this team may or may not have accomplished in AJ's absence. Because of his style of play, he's not someone who makes the players around him better --- which is a shame, because he could have. And that's what I'll remember him for the most.
 
The fact that he is on the floor makes the players around him better. Nobody creates more space than AJ for other players. He could simply stand in the corner and he makes the other players on the floor much much better.
 
Without AJ on Thursday the Horns could very well be watching the Duke game on TV today. It's not his fault that there is diminished talent, or that other players have not developed and in some cases, regressed. AJ is what he is. He's selfish at times because he's the only consistent outside shooter on the team.

With the incoming talent AJ obviously would not see as many minutes next season if he had another year of eligibility, but I will always appreciate having a player like him on the team. I will miss him.
 
SL, I couldn't care less what you think about AJ. I do, however, care about what you SAY about him on a Texas message board, and the effect it may have on other fans' views of him. As I said before (and many others on HornFans have pointed out), you have had a personal vendetta against AJ since at least his sophomore year, and you will never give him credit, regardless of how well he plays. He could have a triple-double tonight in leading us to a victory over Duke, and you will still criticize him. I'll see what I can do about that autographed picture.
 
I appreciate Abrams made some shots. That's about it. Too bad he didn't make more in previous games. Lets hope he doesn't shoot us out of the game against Duke. Lets hope Barnes doesn't try to run too many plays for him and we decide to feed Pittman and James.

I'm glad this is his last year. Last thing we need is AJ chucking up shots that should be taken by a dominating Pittman, Hamilton, Bradley, and James if he comes back. Only think I'm worried about is if Lucas decides to turn into Abrams v2.0 rather than playing a true point.
 
Possibly the most overused aspersion in internetdom.

You stay cliched, rtw21.

I'm never quite sure what you're hoping to get out of these exchanges of ours regarding Abrams. I appreciate you're a fan of his. I'm not. It started his sophomore season when he refused to get the ball to Durant in the post after coming off his baseline curl. Or when he'd constantly put up a shot without a single pass when he was the player bringing the ball up the court. His behavior has continued ever since.

I've said time after time it is Barnes who deserves the credit for creating this monster, because behavior is either rewarded or its punished, and Abrams has been rewarded. AJ is obviously doing what his coach wants from him, so therefore Barnes has earned the lion's share of responsibility for everything. But since I like Barnes for any number of other things he brings to the table, and thankfully he isn't going anywhere, my only option is to look forward to Abrams leaving, and hoping that Barnes doesn't create another similar monster somewhere down the road.
 
SL,

The fact that you think that this team would be better this year tells me how little you know about this game and how little your opinion actually means. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
 
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