Why Nate Oats, Mark Sears Aren't Worried About Recent Shooting Slump

Alabama basketball's veteran guard Mark Sears has shot 16 percent from beyond the arc over his last five games, but he still finished with a double-double in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Mar 21, 2025; Cleveland, OH, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears (1) shoots the ball in the second half against the Robert Morris Colonials during the NCAA Tournament First Round at Rocket Arena. / Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

CLEVELAND–– Mark Sears has one of the most famous 3-point shots in Alabama basketball history. His stepback 3 put the Crimson Tide up seven points with just over a minute to go in last year's Elite Eight matchup with Clemson.

The Alabama veteran guard put on a legendary performance with 23 points on 7 for 14 shooting from beyond the arc to send the Crimson Tide to its first Final Four in program history. Last year in the NCAA Tournament, Sears shot over 40 percent from 3.

Sears hasn't had as much shooting success as of late. He made just one 3-pointer on five attempts in Alabama's opening-round win over Robert Morris and is 5 for his last 31 on perimeter shots dating back to the Florida game on March 5.

"I don’t worry about it at all," Sears said. "The same looks I get, when I’m wide open, I’m going to shoot ‘em every time."

Despite struggling shooting, it didn't show in Sears' effort against Robert Morris. Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game that Sears had a sense of urgency about him and was telling everyone in the huddle during timeouts, "We're not losing this game."

Sears also was distributing the ball to his teammates. He had 10 assists to lead the team and found other ways to score with 22 total points, 11 of which came from the free throw line.

"Listen, I've got a lot of respect for Mark late in the year this year because there's times during the past with his shooting slump, he would have been ready to kind of feel sorry for himself, not fight through it," Oats said. "Well, I think he's done an unbelievable job showing how competitive he is, how much he wants to win, how tough he is mentally because yeah, he's not making shots at the level that he's used to."

Oats' teams are known for shooting a lot of 3s, but Alabama isn't reliant on the 3-point shot falling. It makes the Crimson Tide extremely hard to beat when it's shooting well, but a bad shooting night doesn't automatically equate to a loss.

For example, Alabama made just six 3-pointers on Friday against Robert Morris.

"We've tried to build this team with the expectation there's no guarantee that we shoot the ball at a high level," Oats said. "We've got to build the team to win when 3-point shots aren't dropping, him getting downhill, getting to the free-throw line, distributing the ball to our bigs, I think was big, and it's what we need to keep doing. Hopefully shots start dropping here for everybody pretty soon."

As a team, Alabama finished with 25 assists which was a new program record for an NCAA Tournament game. That is the Crimson Tide at its best: finding the open man, being unselfish and getting the entire team from the backcourt to the frontcourt involved with the offense.

"When we’re moving that ball like that, and everybody’s eating, that’s when we’re really dangerous," Sears said.

Sears has been a big part of Alabama basketball reaching a new level under Oats. In his first season with the Tide after transferring in from Ohio, Alabama won the SEC regular season and tournament titles and earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the program went to its first Final Four, and Sears is hoping to repeat that and go beyond to a national title in his final season.

The two have been through a lot together and have built up a lot of trust in each other.

"Especially when it come tournament time, he wants to win," Sears said. "I want to win. We’ve been through a lot of fiery situations like last night’s game. I feel like he knows what I do best, and I know what he does best."

The next step in that path for Alabama will be a meeting with Saint Mary's in the Round of 32 on Sunday in Cleveland as Sears and the Crimson Tide tries to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season.

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