BIRMINGHAM — Alabama basketball guards Mark Sears and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. gave reporters the rundown of everything they need to know about the Crimson Tide ahead of the 2024-25 season at SEC Media Day .
Coach Nate Oats and company gathered at the Grand Bohemian Hotel to discuss everything from being picked as the favorite to win the SEC championship to the preseason accolades that keep rolling in for Sears, or the impact of transfers in guys like former Auburn player Aden Holloway .
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Straight from the players, here are five things we learned about the latest season of Alabama basketball on Tuesday:
Wrightsell's championship ring is back home with mom and Alabama basketball is done talking about the Final Four. The most recent trip, at least.
"We had our banner reveal on Friday and that's the last time we'll talk about it," he said. Now, the Crimson Tide is looking to "do something that hasn't been done before" and bring a national championship back to the Yellowhammer State.
On Monday, league and national media selected Sears as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year with preseason first team All-SEC honors. When most players are known to say the outside noise doesn't make it to the court, Sears says the awards and accolades "change the outlook" of his final year in Tuscaloosa, and he wants to play up to the standard that the public is setting for him. Sears has already set the program record for most points scored in a single season, netting 797 to see Alabama in the Final Four.
Alabama great Reggie King set the school record with 23 games exceeding 20 points. Sears broke that with 26 20-plus point performances last year. In the last 31 seasons, there hadn't been a Division I player to record 795 points, 150 rebounds, 145 assists and 95 three-pointers in a single season. Sears changed that, too.
As Sears told reporters that he hopes to get his defense up to his offense and show his versatility in the coming months, Wrightsell was selling media on new assistant coach Brian Adams being worth his billing. "Coach Adams is the real thing," he said, knowing that the former Detroit Pistons assistant is going to get the Crimson Tide defense back to what it was. Not the one that starts the year ranked below rival Auburn in the KenPom rankings.
Restoring that highly-touted defense is actually going to be Alabama's driving force to go the distance. Wrightsell said the "chip" on the program's shoulder comes from other teams saying the Crimson Tide "has no defense."
"It's a bar we need to set for ourselves and the Alabama teams to come," Wrightsell said.
With the exit of guard Aaron Estrada, Wrightsell said he's aiming to be a better "facilitator" on the court. Expanding his skill-set and serving in spots as a point guard helps answer the question of how Alabama continues to score if Sears isn't free on the floor.
Alabama basketball has what Wrightsell called "sharks" in new additions from its newest recruiting class and the transfer portal.
"We call them sharks because sharks attack seals, and seals are useless. It's a whole thing," Wrightsell said.
The hardest to guard? Holloway, who's known for his skills from the arc, isn't a big surprise, but freshman Labaron Philon has made his teammates tougher since joining the team, and on both sides of the ball. When asked who was toughest to guard, 6-foot-11 big man from Rutgers Cliff Omoruyi was an "obvious" answer, but Philon's name came up again.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Five things we learned from Alabama basketball players on SEC Media Day
