Alabama head coach Nate Oats discusses scorching hot first half from Mark Sears, second half adjustments vs UNC

The Alabama Crimson Tide drained seven threes in the first half against the North Carolina Tar Heels on Sunday. The Tide rode their simmering hot shooting from beyond-the-arc to a 37-34 lead at halftime over the Tar Heels. Mark Sears was scorching hot from deep, draining four of his five three-point attempts. As a team, Alabama drained 53.8% of their shots from beyond-the-arc. Heading into the locker room at half, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats spoke with ESPN’s Myron Medcalf.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats discussed the hot start

He first discussed the hot shooting from Alabama guard Mark Sears. “Yeah, I mean, he hit some open threes. He’s been playing well. He got in the paint and scored some buckets. He’s tough. We’ve been needing him to get going. Talked to him before. We tried to get him a little bit more off the ball because he scores it. That’s what he does best. We needed him to do what he’s doing here tonight,” Oats said.

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Then he talked about his plan to get Brandon Miller going in the second half. Miller was 0 for 5 shooting from the field in the first half, including 0 for 2 from beyond the arc. He also had to deal with some foul trouble. “Yeah, I mean, we’ve got to free him up a little bit. We tried to put the ball in his hand to be one our playmakers, so they couldn’t deny it. But you know, three fouls obviously hurt. But he’s got five shots. He just hasn’t been able to hit any. So, I didn’t think any of the five were particularly bad shots. He’s gotta make some shots. He’ll bounce back,” Oats said.

Alabama connected on 14 of their 28 field goal attempts in the first half. They also hit 7 of their 13 shots from beyond-the-arc (53.8%). We’ll see if they can keep up the strong momentum in the second half and come away with a big victory against the Tar Heels. Both teams are battling it out for third place in the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon.