Mark Sears was subbed out of Alabama basketball's win over Illinois on Wednesday night with about 11 minutes to play. He never returned to the game. While it had been a tough night for Sears, who went 0/5 from the floor and finished scoreless for just the second time in his collegiate career, it was still a surprise not to see him return to the floor down the stretch of a game that was still in doubt.
In the postgame, we learned that Oats tried to sub Sears back into the game, but Sears would not let him.
Nate Oats tried to put Mark Sears back in during the second half but Sears said "leave these guys in, they're playing pretty well"
— Nick Kelly (@_NickKelly) November 21, 2024
In fairness to Sears, both young guards Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway played exceptionally well, and senior guard Latrell Wrightsell made some big plays down the stretch. With the way Sears had been playing, Alabama was probably better off with the lineup they had out there.
And don't get me wrong, it is impressive leadership from Sears that he set his ego to the side for what was best for the team. That's a rare quality in a player. But if Alabama wants to reach its goals and compete for a national championship, it needs Sears to remember who he is.
Sears is one of the best players in the nation. He was the preseason National Player of the Year and he put the team on his back in the NCAA Tournament last season and led his home state program to its first ever Final Four.
Sears needs to have the confidence that, no matter how poorly he has played to that point, he's still the best player on any court he steps onto and is going to turn it around and lead his team down the stretch.
I'm not worried about Sears long-term. He's currently shooting 39% from the floor and 29% from three, all of which would be career-low numbers. He's in a slump at the moment, but he puts too much work into this for it to last forever.
Mark Sears was in the gym putting shots up until nearly 3am last night following his first scoreless game since his freshman year of college pic.twitter.com/5JLRkh3k5q
— Blake Byler (@blakebyler45) November 21, 2024
Kobe Bryant had a quote once that said "I would rather go 0/30 than 0/9. 0/9 means you beat yourself... the only reason is because you've now lost confidence in yourself."
The first step in Sears breaking out of this funk is to rebuild his confidence. Fortunately for him, there's no coach in the country better at instilling confidence in his players than Nate Oats. And Sears has the track record to not be down for long. He knows how good of a player he is and he'll remember soon enough.
That's probably going to be bad news for Alabama's opponents in Las Vegas next week.