Nate Oats opens up on impact of Mark Sears against Purdue

Alabama nearly pulled the upset on No. 4 Purdue on Saturday when the two met in Toronto. Although the Crimson Tide came a bit short, though, much of their success was due to the explosion from Mark Sears.

Nate Oats complimented the career-best performance from his senior guard during his postgame press conference after the 92-86 loss to the Boilermakers. He saw this as just another primetime matchup that Sears has performed well in, specifically considering how much he ended up scoring inside of Coca-Cola Coliseum.

“Sears has played in these big games,” said Oats. “He has got the advantage a little bit. We played in a lot of big games last year.”

“When he was in? He played well. He was ready to go, he hit eight threes,” Oats said. “We needed to get him to the free-throw line a little bit more and finish at the rim a little bit better. But he played well.”

In the six-point loss to Purdue, Sears tied his career-high with 35 points. That tied for a high in the game as Zach Edey, the reigning National Player of the Year, also went for 35. However, Sears got his on incredible efficiency from the backcourt as he shot 13-25 (52%) from the field, including 8-16 (50%) from behind the three-point line.

Sears’ outburst came throughout the game and kept Alabama ahead or within reach throughout the defeat. In the first half, he finished with 15 points on 5-8 (62.5%) shooting from the field while going 4-5 (80%) from three. Then, in the second half, his 20 points, which came on 47.1% shooting and 36.4% from three, just wasn’t enough to get the job done.

Unfortunately, this outing from Sears came in what ended up being a loss, the third of the season so far, for the Crimson Tide. Still, they’d have never been in a leading or competitive position that they were in had he not played as well as he did against one of the other best teams in the nation.

“We needed him to play well,” said Oats. “We needed him to carry us on offense a little bit tonight and he did.”

Oats on playing Zach Edey: ‘I haven’t seen anything like him’

No. 4 Purdue outlasted Alabama by six points in a high-scoring thriller in the Hall of Fame Series in Toronto. They did so behind a 35-point performance from Zach Edey.

Nate Oats couldn’t say enough about the Boilermaker big man after the game, making an impressive comparison to a former No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. However, in his opinion, Edey might have been more dominant.

“I haven’t seen anything like him,” Oats said postgame. “When I was at Buffalo, we played against DeAndre Ayton. Ayton’s big, strong. We were able to do a better job on Ayton, by a long shot, than we were able to do on Zach. I mean he’s huge. I don’t know what he weighs but it’s a lot.

“When you stand next to Nick (Pringle)? He’s a big guy too but he dwarfed Pringle. (Mohamed) Wague? All of them. All three of those guys are 6-10, 6-11 and they all looked really small next to him. He’s extremely, physically imposing. He imposed his will on us for 35 points tonight. He’s going to do that to a few teams this year, I think.”

While Edey had his way against the Crimson Tide, that wasn’t due to a lack of game planning.

“He’s a tough cover. We didn’t do a terrible job on him and he had 35 points,” Oats continued. “He makes things difficult. You’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do. He gets the ball so deep and he’s so big. And then, when you do double him, he’s pretty good passing out of it. You can’t foul him. He went 11-of-11 at the free-throw line.”