Alabama basketball picked up a big 100-87 win over No. 20 Illinois on Wednesday night, and it came with a bigger omission from the box score.
Fifth-year guard Mark Sears, a consensus second-team All-America selection last season who led the No. 7 Crimson Tide to their first Final Four appearance, was held scoreless throughout the entirety of the game. He also sat for all but eight minutes in the second half.
It was easily his worst performance in his three seasons at Alabama , and it led to him hitting the lab after the game.
REQUIRED READING: Alabama basketball, Nate Oats react to 100-point game with zero points from Mark Sears
Sears, who played 21 minutes and shot 0 for 5 from the field, posted a picture on Instagram of him getting shots up after the game well into the morning, with the picture showing a 2:41 a.m. timestamp. According to the post, Sears attempted at least 669 shots after the game, making at least 532.
Sears likely just had a bad game, but also asked to stay on the bench, according to coach Nate Oats, as the other Crimson Tide guards were playing well. Alabama's 13-point win vs. Illinois, without a single point from someone expected to be the Crimson Tide's best player this season, might be a scary anecdote for the rest of the sport.
"I took him out to kind of let him get his head together a little bit, and I tried to put him back in. ..." Oats said. "I'll be honest with you, similar to like what Herb Jones has done before. We've had some really good players here that have just kind of been unselfish enough and want to win bad enough to say, 'Hey, let the guys go.' "
Alabama forward Grant Nelson , who scored a game-high 23 points, added:
"Tonight in the huddle, he kind of subbed himself out just because he saw guys were playing well," Nelson said.
The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 21.5 points per game last season, which ranked 11th nationally and third in the SEC behind Dalton Knecht and Jordan Sears. He hasn't quite found his groove in 2024, however, as he's averaging 13.8 points on 39.6% shooting in five games so far.
Regardless, it seems like Sears is going to put in the work that's needed to regain his form from the 2023-24 season.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Mark Sears takes shots past 2 a.m. after scoreless game for Alabama
