Nate Oats reveals unique way that Mark Sears handled his struggles vs. Illinois

Mark Sears did not play over the final minutes of Alabama’s game against Illinois in a decision that was his own.

Nate Oats spoke about Sears sitting following the 100-87 win for ‘Bama over the Fighting Illini on Wednesday. He said that, after checking him out in the second half, their best player didn’t want to substitute himself back in during the end of the game with the lineup that the Crimson Tide had playing well and eventually winning it.

“Yeah, he was great on the bench,” Oats said postgame. “I mean, just, he was struggling…You know, he had some good looks. They just didn’t go.

“You know, I took him out, kind of let him get his head together a little bit. I tried to put him back in and he just said, ‘Look, they’re playing well’. I’ll be honest with you – similar to, like, Herb Jones has done it before. We’ve had some really good players here that have just kind of been unselfish enough and want to win bad enough to just say, ‘Let the guys go. They’re playing really well. Leave them in’. So, that’s what I did,” Oats said. “I tried to put him back in in the middle of that 11 minute. But, at a timeout, he just said leave these guys in. They were playing pretty well. He was right so we left them in and they went on a run and won it.”

Sears was scoreless for just the second time in his collegiate career last night during the win in Birmingham. He missed all five of his shots, including four attempts from three, in his 21 minutes. He did still post two assists, two turnovers, a rebound, and a steal.

Still, with how he played, Sears didn’t want to come back into the game and affect what Alabama had going. That was an end where, despite mostly maintaining their double-digit lead, the Crimson Tide kept ahead and reached the century mark without a point from him.

Sears has started his season with averages that are down through five games. He’s at 13.8 ppg. with his worst splits while with the team at 39.6% shooting overall and 29.2% from three. As for why that may be, Oats thinks there’s a lot on him coming into the year, especially with opponents keying in on him more than ever defensively.

“You know, there’s a lot of pressure on him – obviously, being a home-state kid, came back to Preseason Player of the Year,” said Oats. “You know, he’s trying to do well. Teams are gearing their defense towards him.”

Sears is one of the best scorers, let alone players in general, in all of college basketball. That’s why this outing was as odd as it was for him, although still being a leader for them, and why Oats expects him to be back to what he has been for them.

“I’m sure he’ll bounce back and be pretty good against Houston,” Oats said.