Alabama basketball held off Illinois in Birmingham on Wednesday night 100-87 despite a scoreless night from preseason National Player of the Year Mark Sears. Sears' struggles were so severe that he was benched down the stretch in favor of Aden Holloway and Labaron Philon.
Both Philon and Holloway made big plays down the stretch to seal the win for the Crimson Tide. It was a nice bounce-back performance for the Crimson Tide following its first loss of the season on the road against Purdue. The Illini came in ranked No. 25 and this figures to be a win that will look good on the NCAA Tournament resume all year long.
The freshman phenom Philon led the way for Alabama with another stat-stuffing performance. He finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists. Holloway scored 18 points and hit 3-of-4 from three-point range.
Grant Nelson got the party started for the Crimson Tide with a 19-point first half en route to 23 points. He added eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
3 Takeaways from Alabama's Top 25 win over Illinois
3. Alabama's depth was on full display
Alabama will not be as dependent on Mark Sears to be superhuman every night. Even with Sears going scoreless on Wednesday night for the first time in an Alabama uniform, Alabama still put up 100 points against a power conference opponent.
With Sears struggling, Alabama needed its other two on-ball guards to step up. And both Philon and Holloway had big games to help the Crimson Tide to victory. Both also made big plays down the stretch, including an alley-oop each to Cliff Omoruyi, to justify Nate Oats' difficult decision to keep his All-American guard on the bench.
Along with Nelson, Philon, and Holloway, senior Latrell Wrightsell finished in double figures with 16 points. Every player who played scored aside from Sears. It was a weird night.
2. Mark Sears has to be better and he will be
Two consecutive games Sears has not looked like himself. He went 5-of-15 from the floor on Friday night in the loss to Purdue and followed that up with an 0-of-5 scoreless night against Illinois. His struggles are clearly in his head and his body language is showing it.
After one particularly bad turnover in the second half, Sears loafed back on transition defense. I believe that play was what directly led to Sears being benched. Even on the bench, every other player was standing after a ridiculous reverse layup down the stretch by Wrightsell. Except Sears. He stayed seated and softly clapped.
Sears needs to take a page from Houston Mallette. The Pepperdine transfer came to Alabama expecting to be a big part of this team. Instead, he ultimately accepted a redshirt because there wasn't enough minutes to go around. Every game so far Mallette has been high-energy on the bench.
Long term, I'm not worried about Sears. We know how good of a player he is. He is in a funk right now, but he'll snap out of it. He has to if Alabama wants to reach its goals. As great as it was to have the other guys step up tonight, you can't count on beating many good teams when your best player is this ineffective.
1. Oats found the right starting lineup
For the last few games, Alabama has gone with a big starting lineup featuring Jarin Stevenson, Grant Nelson, and Cliff Omoruyi all together with two guards. Against Illinois, Oats went with three guards plus Nelson and Omouyi. Sears, Philon, and Wrightsell all started in the backcourt.
It wouldn't surprise me once Chris Youngblood returns and gets back into game shape if he is in the starting lineup over either Philon or Wrightsell. If he starts over Philon, Alabama would have three 40+% shooters in the backcourt starting. But as good as Philon has been, it's hard to be comfortable moving him to the bench.
In the meantime, tonight's starting five should remain the starting five moving forward until Youngblood gets back.
Alabama now heads to Vegas for the Players Era Tournament. They will face off against Houston on Tuesday night.