He is as New Orleans as Mardi Gras, gumbo and red beans and rice.

So imagine the shock when D.J. Augustin spurned LSU to play basketball at the University of Texas.

Augustin was called a "sellout" on LSU message boards.

He was labeled a "traitor."

"It was tough not to pick LSU," the Longhorns' freshman point guard said. "A bunch of the Web sites were saying I should have gone to LSU. I had to make the best decision for me and my family."

Augustin expects to hear some boos tonight when the Longhorns play No. 9 LSU at the Toyota Center.

"If that happens, I'm really not going to pay attention," Augustin said. "When I'm playing, I don't really hear the crowd. I'm just worrying about what's happening on the floor."

Down to UT or LSU

Augustin, one of the nation's most sought-after point guards, narrowed his list to LSU and Texas entering his senior year. His recruitment was briefly put on hold in late August 2005, when Augustin and his family were forced to evacuate New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. They relocated to Houston, where the 5-11 Augustin played his senior season at Hightower.

At the time of his relocation, Augustin, 19, said he had not made his decision where to attend school. About three months later, he picked the Longhorns.

"There's a misconception he went to Texas because we were in Houston. That's not true," his mother, Vanessa, said. "Texas and LSU were the final two schools. D.J. always had interest in Texas."

No pressure from father

Augustin could have easily landed in Baton Rouge. He has friends on the Tigers' roster, and his father, Darryl Sr., worked at the LSU Medical Branch in New Orleans as an animal research technician.

"I told D.J. a long time ago not to let my job influence his decision," Darryl Sr. said. "We kept it quiet that I worked for LSU. It was hard to do."

The Longhorns spent nearly two years recruiting Augustin and added him to a recruiting class that was rated the third best in the nation.

"We thought we had a shot at him, or we wouldn't have stayed in it that long," said Texas coach Rick Barnes, who calls Augustin the purest point guard for the Longhorns since T.J. Ford in 2003. "We felt we had a shot if we stayed after it, and it worked for us."

Augustin wants to make one thing clear: "I'm always going to be New Orleans at heart. I love New Orleans. Even though I'm living in Texas, I'm always going to be a Louisiana guy."

At the beginning of the school year, when the Texas sports information office was compiling information for the team media guide, Augustin was asked what hometown he wanted to list.

"New Orleans," he said.

And if he never had been forced out because of the hurricane?

"I think I would have made the same decision if I had been in Louisiana," he said.

Augustin will have 31 family members at tonight's game. In a show of support, a charter bus with 35 supporters from his old high school, New Orleans Brother Martin, will make the trip.

"It's an opportunity for the Brother Martin community to show their support for D.J. and his family for what they've been through," Brother Martin boys basketball coach Scott Thompson said. "That's the kind of relationship we have."

Texas forward Kevin Durant, a projected lottery pick in next year's NBA draft, calls Augustin the most important piece of the Longhorns' recruiting class.

"He's way more important than I am," Durant said. "It's important to get a point guard because he kick-starts your offense. Getting D.J. was key for the program."

Room for improvement

Augustin is off to a strong start for the Longhorns, who have started four freshmen at times this season. He is averaging 9.3 points and 6.6 assists per game and has 13 steals. Barnes said he would like Augustin to shoot more and become more of a vocal leader on the floor. He's also regained a lot of his quickness by losing 20 pounds since arriving on campus.

"He's the one guy who can make us a more versatile team just by talking and getting guys to do what he wants them to do," Barnes said.

At the time of the evacuation, Augustin and the rest of the seniors at Brother Martin, an all-boys Catholic school, had received their class rings. Within weeks, Thompson said, the basketball team was scattered all over the country, with players in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Baton Rouge, Houston and Austin.

Vanessa Augustin said the family is grateful to Hightower for opening its doors to her son.

"At first, Hightower was tough for him. It was a new environment, a new school, new teammates, a new place to live," she said. "He was the new kid on the block and was coming to a program already established. He's very thankful."

Victims of Katrina

The Augustin home in the Gentilly area of New Orleans was destroyed. Darryl Sr. managed to salvage some of D.J.'s basketball awards and his high school letter jacket.

Since the hurricane, Augustin has been back to New Orleans. He took part in an emotional graduation ceremony that turned out to be a reunion. He also stopped by his old neighborhood.

"It was tough," he said. "I had to see it and move on to the next chapter in my life."

However, there will always be plenty of pages filled with memories of his hometown.

"We're born and raised New Orleans," Vanessa Augustin said. "New Orleans will always be home. We'd still be in New Orleans if not for the hurricane. Nobody knew we would end up here."