Labaron Philon wears Jigsaw-inspired shoes in Round of 32

Alabama’s Labaron Philon has been one of the scarier freshmen in the country to guard in any game this season. His shoes in the NCAA Tournament now reflect that with what he’s wearing this afternoon.

In the Crimson Tide’s matchup against Saint Mary’s in the Round of 32, Philon will be wearing a pair of Kobe 8s. The kicks are custom-made being inspired by the movie franchise of ‘Jigsaw’.

Labaron Philon's custom 'Jigsaw' Kobe 8s for Alabama's NCAA Tournament game vs. St Mary's 🩸🩸🩸 pic.twitter.com/Cmj8xu2Ry9

— Patrick Greenfield (@PCGreenfield) March 23, 2025

In those shoes, Philon went out to have a good all-around game in the 80-66 win for No. 2 Alabama over No. 7 Saint Mary’s to advance to the Sweet 16. He posted six points to go with six rebounds, five assists, three steals, and two blocks with only one turnover.

Sears, Nelson reveal Oats used media ‘lowlight’ jabs to fuel Alabama for Saint Mary’s

The preview of No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 7 Saint Mary’s was as a matchup of two very different kinds of teams. The Crimson Tide took that personally, though, based on how they were seen going into the game.

Following the 80-66 win for the Crimson Tide over the Gaels, Mark Sears and Grant Nelson were asked about the thought that they were ‘soft’ coming in as compared to this opponent in the Round of 32. He said it was an emphasis for them, even to the point of Nate Oats cutting up the video of media members saying so about the two teams.

“Before the game Oats showed us a 1 minute lowlight tape of all the big time announcers basically saying we’re soft in nice words, so we all took that personal…”

Mark Sears and Grant Nelson talk about comments that gave them a little extra motivation tonight pic.twitter.com/qN6Hmx49w0

— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 24, 2025

“Oh, for sure. That was a, that was an insult, you know,” said Sears. “Before the game, Oats showed us a one-minute lowlight tape of all the big-time announcers saying, ‘Ah, they’re soft’ – basically saying we’re soft in nice words. So, like, you know, we all took that personal and, uh, we’re going to keep that mindset rolling throughout March.”

“Yeah, a little bit. I mean, we played all the best teams in the country. We played the most physical teams in the country. We beat pretty much all of them. So, I mean, it’s – this game tonight definitely shows where we’re at with that. We can play physical,” said Nelson. “I mean, we definitely do need to come out and do that more consistently. But that was a point of emphasis going in. So, I mean, we’ve got to continue to do that moving forward.”