Mark Sears Named SEC Basketball Co-Player of the Week

It's indisputable that no one on the Alabama men's basketball team has been criticized more this season than guard Mark Sears. To be fair, the Preseason All-American has had numerous games in 2024-25 that have been subpar for his elite standards due to turnovers and inconsistent shooting.

This past week, the negatives towards Sears were thrown out the window when then-No. 4 Alabama lost to then-No. 15 Missouri on Wednesday but took down then-No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday. Sears was the reason for the Crimson Tide's numerous comeback efforts against the Tigers and was also the main catalyst to an explosive latter 30 minutes against the Wildcats.

Sears scored 30-plus points in back-to-back games for the first time in his career to help him be named the SEC Co-Player of the Week on Monday. He shares the title with Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier.

Sears was one of the Crimson Tide's few bright lights early in the loss to Mizzou as he scored 14 points in the first half. This continued in the second period as he led his team out from the dark to narrow the deficit all the way down to six points with less than 10 minutes to go.

However, despite scoring 26 points prior to the timeout, the rest of Alabama couldn't help Sears the rest of the way. Missouri's offense continued to blitz through the Tide's defense but the Alabama guard wouldn't let the Tigers run away with the lead as he led his team back to a six-point deficit another time with one minute remaining in regulation. Sears scored a season-high 35 points, but a couple more Alabama turnovers ended the game.

The Crimson Tide was down 30-18 after yet another slow start against Kentucky, but after a massive run, Alabama took the lead and never looked back. Sears, along with fellow Crimson Tide guards Aden Holloway (19 points) and Chris Youngblood (14) led the Tide in this run and it flurried into the second half.

Sears scored 30 points on 8-for-17 from the field, including 3-for-8 from downtown. Saturday's outing gave him back-to-back 30-plus point performances for the first time in his Crimson Tide career. His 11-for-11 performance at the free-throw line helped Alabama finish the game with much-needed improvement of 84 percent from the charity stripe. The Preseason All-American guard was dominant in both halves as he scored 15 points in each period.

“I think [Sears] just wants to win," Oats said after the Kentucky game. "I think he came back to try to win a National Championship. He came back to try to play his way into the NBA. Winning solves a lot of that stuff and I think he’s not worried about [his stats]. He’s trying to play the right way. He’s as coachable as he’s ever been and his effort on defense has been through the roof, really the last three or four weeks.

"It's just a combination of ‘Let's get him to lead. Let’s play the right way on both sides of the ball. Give us total effort on defense.’ And I think he’s been doing that. I’ve been super happy with the way he’s been playing.”

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