Jon Scheyer stresses need to slow down Max Abmas

Duke is going to have its hands full this evening with Max Abmas of Oral Roberts. The senior guard for the Golden Eagles has proven to be one of the nation’s best scorers, including on the NCAA Tournament stage. Now, in their Round of 64 game against him in Orlando, Jon Scheyer is preaching discipline with his players.

Scheyer spoke highly of Abmas and ORU ahead of the No. 5-No. 12 matchup inside the Amway Center. At this point in his career, he isn’t sure if the Blue Devils can necessarily stop Abmas. With that in mind, his focus is on them limiting him and his teammates as best as they can with a team effort on the defensive end against a very talented scorer.

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“Yeah, I’m not sure if you stop Abmas,” joked Scheyer. “He’s been around long enough where everybody understands what a special scorer that he is. He’s a great college guard and he’s going to have a chance to play beyond college as well. But he’s a guy you have to be really disciplined with. You want to make it as tough as you can on him, understanding he’s going to hit some shots. He has deep range. He’s an automatic free-throw shooter. His passing is much improved.”

“(But) I don’t think it’s about stopping him. I think it’s about just being disciplined and making life as difficult as possible on him. We have really good individual defenders but it can’t be just one guy,” Scheyer said. “The thing I think that you overlook with their team is the players they have around him. You can’t just key in on him because they have other guys that can knock down shots and they have great spacing and movement. They know how to play. So a lot of respect to their offense and what they do. But of course he’s a special player.”

Abmas has a career scoring average of 20.9 points per game. He has averaged over 22 points per game each of his last three seasons, including 22.2 this year. Abmas is doing it efficiently as well as a three-level scorer for the Golden Eagles.

He also has the advantage of having been there and done that in March Madness. During ORU’s Sweet 16 run in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, Abmas averaged 26.7 points per game and 4.7 assists en route to a pair of upsets over Ohio State and Florida before Arkansas sent them home.

Now, Abmas will be looking to make some more March magic on an even better Oral Roberts team. That’s why, in Scheyer’s eyes, it’s going to take a group effort to make the game hard on Abmas and to keep him from notching another upset to his belt.