Nate Oats shares latest on Mark Sears before clash with Tennessee
Mark Sears tweaked his ankle in the first half of Alabama’s game versus Missouri. While he was able to play through it, Nate Oats rested him for the final eight minutes of the contest.
Will Sears be able to go tomorrow in the Crimson Tide’s road game against No. 6 Tennessee?
“He’s been able to fully practice these last two days,” Oats said Friday. “He’s not 100 percent, but we haven’t held him out of anything in practice. It’s progressing every day, so hopefully, he’s better tomorrow than he was today. But he’s the leading scorer in the SEC, so we’re going to play him if he’s anywhere close to 100 percent.”
Sears enters Alabama’s fifth conference game of the season as the SEC’s leading scorer with 19.6 per game. Up until the Missouri game, which saw him score nine points in 25 minutes, the senior guard had produced double-digit points in every game of the 2023-24 campaign.
Sears is shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three after 17 games and is second on the team in assists (62) and third in rebounds (69). His field goal percentage ranks third in the SEC, while 3.7 assists per game are good for the eighth place in the league.
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes spoke highly of Sears’ game earlier on Friday.
“He can score it,” Barnes said. “You’ve got to find him early because he can take it and go. Really does a great job of squaring his shoulders to the rim. And (he) finds people. He can score himself and he knows that they’ve got those shooters in the corners for the most part. And I like the fact, I think he puts the ball where it needs to be.”
Alabama will play Tennessee on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 1 p.m. CT. The game will air on ESPN2.
Wague unable to practice
Alabama forward Mohamed Wague (foot) should be available against the Vols, but unlike Sears, the West Virginia transfer has not been able to practice due to a nagging injury.
“We’re trying to save him for games,” Oats said. “So he hasn’t practiced much. So it’s a little bit harder when you can’t practice to be in sync with everybody else for the games, but he’s kind of available as frontcourt depth when we need it. You know he’s gonna play hard. He’s just got this injury that we kind of have to deal with the rest of the year.”
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