Nate Oats raves about leadership of Mark Sears during Georgia win

Oh what a difference a week makes.

Just seven days after sending a strong message by benching All-American veteran Mark Sears for the entire second half of a home win over LSU, Alabama head coach Nate Oats extolled the graduate senior point guard’s leadership in a blowout 90-69 win over Georgia on Saturday inside Coleman Coliseum.

“I thought this was the hardest Sears has played, and I told him, it’s good to see,” Oats said in his postgame press conference. “I thought he had some turnovers, (but) he sprinted back and made tough plays on D(efence), didn’t sulk, didn’t pout. His leadership, the effort he gave tonight, I think really helped set the tone for how the team is supposed to look.”

Playing a team-high 31 minutes Saturday after playing just 17 the week before, Sears led all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting to go along with six assists and five rebounds, sparking the Crimson Tide to its fifth consecutive win and 13th of Alabama’s last 14 games.

Sears, a native of Muscle Shoals, Ala., leads all Crimson Tide players averaging 32.1 minutes, 18.1 points, 5.1 assists per game and a 40.4 field goal percentage.

And while a team-high six of Alabama’s 20 turnovers — the second-most in a game this season — on Saturday were attributed to Sears, it was his ability to recover and provide defense on the other end of the floor that set a needed example for the rest of his Tide teamamtes to follow, and follow they did.

“Defensively, we held them to a .88 (points per possession), which is really hard to do, especially when you turn the ball over 20 times, and they got plenty of opportunities to score off our turnovers,” Oats added. “But we sprinted back, made big stops. So if we can take that mentality, that effort on the defensive end and clean up the offense, we’ve got something headed into the right direct here going into the second half of conference play.”

Nate Oats hammers home clear message on Mark Sears amid benching controversy

Days after benching Sears for the second-half against LSU, Oats sent his Alabama team a powerful message ahead of last week’s road game at Mississippi State.

“There is nobody above the program, including the head coach,” Oats said.

Standards at Alabama are high, especially off a Final Four appearance last year. Oats has not revealed the exact halftime conversations that led to not just Sears being benched but Cliff Omoruyi as well. Both came out of the halftime locker room and sat on the bench. The difference is that Omoruyi got back into the game and contributed in a big way.

Oats’ goal is to make sure the program is able to function without one specific person, including himself. He used an example from Nick Saban when he missed the 2020 Iron Bowl vs. Auburn due to COVID-19. Steve Sarkisian was the acting head coach while Saban watched from home but Alabama still cruised to a 42-13 win.

“My first year here, I had to go to my grandfather’s funeral,” Oats said. “If I missed a game, if I missed a day. I think Coach Saban maybe had to miss one back in COVID. He built such a strong program that they’re able to perform without any one particular person there.

“The program is bigger than any one person, including the head coach. Let’s build such a strong program and such a strong culture by everybody in it that we don’t rely on just one person all the time.”

Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.