Next week is going to be a massive week. It will not only affect the state of Alabama, but it will also affect the entire country. Possibly the entire world and it's future. Alabama Basketball will begin their most anticipated season in its existence on Monday night. Oh yeah and that other thing on Tuesday. Man, that joke would have been so much better if the first game was on Tuesday night. I did the best I could.
If you even remotely keep up with College Basketball, you know that this Alabama team is loaded. They will begin the season ranked number 2 in the country and considered by many to be the most talented team in the country. That team will be led by Mark Sears. Now a grad student who decided to come back for one last season of college basketball, Sears has already been named a preseason All-American and voted the 3rd best player in the nation by ESPN. If that's not enough hype, I am going to start the narrative that he could potentially become Alabama's all-time leading scorer. No pressure, Mark.
Here's some history for you first. The current all-time leader in points for the University is Reggie King. I am ashamed to admit that I did not know who that was before researching for this post. In my defense, it was way before my time. Still, it's inexcusable. I'll be better. Anyway, for those of you who also don't know who he is, Reggie King played for Alabama from the 1975-76 season through the 1978-79 season. He was picked 18th overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the then Kansas City Kings. Fitting right? While at Alabama he was a 2-time SEC player of the year, and as I mentioned set the University's all-time scoring record with 2,168 points.
Back to present day now. Mark Sears is entering this season with a total of 1,260 points scored for Alabama. That means he would have to score 909 points this year to surpass the current record. Can he do it? Well, Sears already holds the single season scoring record for Alabama. He set that Mark (pun intended) last season by scoring 797 points in 37 games for an average of 21.5 ppg. Sears scored 50 more points than the previous record, help by Reggie King.
So, Sears would need to break his own single season record by 112 points to get the all-time record. If we assume he plays 38 games this year (which would be 1 more game than last year, wink wink) Sears would need to average, let's call it 24 ppg (29.92). That doesn't sound all that difficult. My guess is it will be. Especially if you factor in how deep this Alabama team is. I mean just look at this roster, it's beautiful. If everything goes according to plan, there could be a lot of players scoring for this team and 24 ppg might not be realistic.
If Sears could, however, pull off this feat of 909 points, he would move into the spot of the 7th highest scoring season in SEC history, taking the spot from Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (LSU, 1988-89). He is already in the 11th spot for his performance last year. Side note the SEC record for most points in a season is Pete Maravich with 1,381 points. Spots two and three also belong to Maravich with 1,148 and 1,138. That's nuts.
909 points would also give Mark Sears the 64th-highest single-season point total in NCAA history. There are currently 4 players tied for 64th with 908 points in a season. So could it happen, maybe? Will it happen, also maybe? I'm an optimist what can I say? Realistically, it will be very hard to pull off. If Sears does pull it off, he would very likely win the Wooden Award, and I would really like Alabama's chances to win it all. I already like their chances. But if this happens, I would REALLY like their chances. Either way, it will be something interesting to keep tabs on as the season tips off Monday night at home against UNC Asheville. And shout out Reggie King. He deserves more respect.