Alabama Basketball's Mark Sears Named Finalist For Bob Cousy Award
Alabama's senior guard Mark Sears had a big responsibility entering the 2023-24 season. Sears was the only starter returning from last season's Crimson Tide basketball team that won a double SEC championship. Sears took on the responsibility of integrating eight new scholarship players and has led the Crimson Tide to strong season.
The Crimson Tide guard leads the team in scoring, shooting 43-percent from the 3-point line. Sears has helped lead Alabama to a 20-9 record thus far with the Crimson Tide lining up to claim a high seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
On Monday the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announced its five finalists for the 2024 Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation's best collegiate point guard. The Muscle Shoals product was named a finalist for the award after being left off its semifinal list a few weeks ago.
"Yeah, it was nice that the committee recognized him. I think they had the midseason one where they overlooked him. I think he's definitely one of the best five point guards in the country. His defense has gotten significantly better over the last month, few weeks. I would have to go look at all those other four other players, I think there's five on the finalists to see what the efficiency numbers are. My guess he would be the most efficient one. He's not a guy that takes a lot of bad shots. He's not a volume guy that needs 30 shots to get his points. He's had big scoring outputs on 10 shots this year," said Alabama head coach Nate Oats on Monday.
"He's super efficient. He scores the ball at a high level. He makes the right reads. He's been great getting into the paint and finding his teammates. He's becoming a much better screener lately. I don't know who's leading the league in scoring right now, him and Knecht are kind of neck-and-neck, right there. Whether he's first or second in the league in scoring, he's been up at the top. He's being a great teammate knowing that if teams aren't helping off him he turns himself into - the lob play we got for Pringle with the and-one - he set a great rip-screen to get Pringle to the win. I think he's about winning, as evidenced by his great screening, his decision-making when he gives the ball up, his defense. When you're about winning and your team's winning you should be recognized when you're putting up the numbers that he does. I think that was the case. I think maybe he was overlooked, when they came out with the first 10 because we weren't winning at the level that we needed to be. Now that we are, why is Alabama winning? Well, he's a huge part of why we're winning and it's not just scoring, because there's some guys that score the ball at a pretty high clip, but need 25, 30, 35 shots to get it. He scores super efficiently, makes the right reads, his defense has gotten significantly better. He's become one of our better defenders here in the last few weeks. I thought his defense was really good against Tennessee and we need it to be great tomorrow night against Florida too."
Sears is averaging 20.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game and has set the school record for 20-point performances in a season.
2024 Bob Cousy Award Finalists
- Mark Sears - Alabama
- Jamal Shead - Houston
- Tyler Kolek - Marquette
- Braden Smith - Purdue
- Tristen Newton - UConn
