No. 4 Alabama pulled away from LSU on Saturday night in the second half for an 80-73 win without the services of the SEC’s leading scorer entering the weekend, Mark Sears, who logged zero minutes over the game’s second half after leading the team with 17 first-half minutes. Sears’ curious absence was explained postgame by Alabama coach Nate Oats as a tactical move, not a benching, but his rationale for the decision sounded much more like the latter than the former.
“We just played the guys we thought gave us the best chance to win in the second half,” Oats said.
Sears was 0 of 5 from the field in the first half with three assists and two turnovers in 17 scoreless minutes. He was -1 in plus/minus as LSU scored 40 first-half points and got to the rim with high frequency.
“I didn’t think our second-half defense has been very good lately,” Oats added. “So we made the point to the guys that we’re done starting the same group [in the second half] that starts the game, we’re going to start the guys we think give us the best chance to get a great start in the second half.
“We subbed in two guys in the starting lineup — kind of looked at some leverage numbers, plus/minus numbers, kind of challenged a couple guys,” he continued.
Oats said he was “super proud” of how his team played in the second half and responded to the challenge of playing with more defensive intensity. He did not go into more details specifically on Sears, a Preseason All-American, but it seems the team’s defensive performance and his role within that was at the heart of the benching.
“We went with the guys in the second half we felt like gave us the best chance to win the game, and we won the game, and our defense was significantly better than the first half,” Oats said. “We hadn’t done that very much this year.”
Sears fell to the second-leading scorer in the SEC after going scoreless on the same day Texas freshman Tre Johnson, the league’s new scoring leader, dropped 30 points in a come-from-behind win over No. 13 Texas A&M.
Sears’ benching is likely a message sent and not a permanent change in the rotation for Oats and Alabama, who are 17-3 on the season and 6-1 in league play riding Sears as their top dog. How Sears responds to the clear challenge could dictate just how Oats handles his star scorer moving forward.
“We’re looking for the same response Cliff [Omoruyi] gave us in the second half,” Oats said when asked of what he’s hoping to see of Sears moving forward. “[We want] to be all about doing the stuff we need to do to win basketball games.”
