Freshman guard Labaron Philon re-entered the starting lineup for Alabama basketball this week. Philon has been in the starting group for most of his freshman season, but a nagging ankle injury allowed graduate senior Chris Youngblood to step into his spot as Nate Oats continued to play a bigger starting lineup with Jarin Stevenson at the three and Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi in the frontcourt.
But starting with the Missouri game on Wednesday and continuing against Kentucky on Saturday, Oats placed Philon in the starting lineup alongside Mark Sears in the backcourt, shifting Youngblood to the three and Stevenson to the bench.
The idea in starting Philon was to take some of the play-making duties off of Sears' plate, allowing him to play off-the-ball and get more catch-and-shoot opportunities. It's worked, at least offensively, with Sears scoring 30+ points in back-to-back games, and doing so efficiently.
Nate Oats wants Mark Sears to trust Labaron Philon like he trusted another Alabama guard
Oats' message to Sears with regards to Philon was simple:
"You need to trust him like you did Aaron (Estrada) last year. You're gonna score more points on fewer shots," said Oats in the postgame following the Kentucky win.
Trusting Estrada was easy. He was a fifth-year senior guard with a proven track record in college basketball. Sears being willing to trust a freshman guard is a lot more difficult, but Philon is far from a normal freshman. He hit a bit of a freshman wall, but he's back to looking like the confident, talented guard he showed himself to be in non-conference play.
Estrada was able to run the offense and create for others last season. Estrada led the team with 4.6 assists per game in 2023-24 and recorded just the fourth triple-double in Alabama history in a win against Ole Miss.
This year, with a freshman in Philon and a sophomore in Holloway as the other two ball handlers, Sears has taken more of the load in trying to create and run the offense. Him letting go of some of that responsibility and trusting both Philon and Holloway should unlock the Sears we saw most of last season. The guy who put Alabama on his back and led them to the Final Four for the first time in program history.