Last night, Alabama won their 6th SEC and 17th overall game of the season against LSU. Did you miss the game? Well, have you ever been to a 1A Junior Varsity game at your local high school? You have? Now picture one of those teams wearing purple and gold and the other wearing crimson and white. That was the LSU vs Alabama game on Saturday night. 28 total turnovers. Of 132 total shots, 55 were made. The teams combined to go 10 of 46 from 3-point range.
But it was worse than that. Remember the JV game analogy? Most of the night it just felt like chaos. And not the good, crimson kind. The falling all over the place and sloppy basketball kind. I don't know how else to describe it. And on top of all of that, Mark Sears had his second scoreless game of the season. Not ideal. But the good guys won again, so everything is fine. For now.
To refresh your memory, back on November 20th, Mark Sears also scored zero points against at the time #25 Illinois. They are currently ranked 17th. That night Sears played 21 minutes and was 0-5 from the field. And I'm going to paraphrase a little, but Sears said he elected to stay out of the game because the current group on the floor was playing well. But last night against LSU was different. This did not appear to be the preseason SEC player of the year's decision.
He didn't enter the second half after going 0-3 from the field in the first half and was clearly upset on the bench. And there was no talk of him going back in the game during post-game comments. In fact, Nate Oats started off by saying he was not going to address it. So, we don't really know what is going on.
Last year Sears averaged 21.5 points per game over 37 total games. His lowest point total of the year was 9. Now through 20 games this year he already has two goose eggs. But, outside of those scoreless games, his lowest point total is 11 which he's done twice. Not awful. So, this isn't just a disaster of a year for Sears.
And I don't think we have reached a "Trea Turner" level yet. You remember, where the Philly fans, somewhat condescendingly, cheered loudly for Turner when he was in a slump, and it turned things around for him. Can you believe Netflix made a documentary about that? It makes me mad every time I see it. That is not worthy of a documentary. A 3-minute piece narrated by Tom Rinaldi (or the MLBs equivalent) before Sunday Night Baseball maybe. Not a documentary. And they are raising prices again? Nuts.
Anyway, we aren't there yet. Sears is not playing as well as he did last year. But for the most part he has been productive, especially when he can get to the free throw line. He has also raised his assist average by almost full point. As for now, I am going to chalk it up to this team being pretty loaded offensively. There's only so many shot attempts to go around. And if Sears doesn't find the rhythm early there's no need to force it. There are more guys this year that can handle the ball and score. This benching also felt like a challenge to Mark Sears from head coach Nate Oats. Oats praised transfer center Clifford Omoruyi for not "bringing it" in the first half and then responding by being engaged on the bench and playing hard in the second half.
Before the season started, I wrote about Sears possibly becoming Alabama's all-time leading scorer. That is not out of the question, but it is getting more and more unlikely. But Mark Sears' story is far from written. It's a down year for him, but the team is winning games. And I personally guarantee there will be a game this year when Mark Sears is needed, and he will show up in a big way. I expect him to respond to the disappointment, and likely embarrassment, of being benched by finding a way back to his old self. The one that bombs 3s and rips the opponents hearts out. And if he doesn't then maybe we try the Trae Turner thing. And then maybe I can sell it to Netflix, they'll buy anything apparently.
P.S. Here's my stat that I make fit my narrative. I guess that's my thing now. Going back to 2020, Mark Sears is the only SEC preseason player of the year to have a scoreless game in that season. None of those players won a National Championship. Maybe the SEC preseason player of the year has to have a scoreless game for their team to win it all. Championship loading?