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Alabama Crimson Tide

Nate Oats comments on lack of playing time for Mark Sears vs. LSU

Spenser Davis

By Spenser Davis

Published:

Nate Oats addressed Mark Sears’ lack of playing time in Alabama’s 80-73 win over LSU on Monday night.

Sears, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, did not play in the 2nd half as the Tide were in a close battle with the Tigers. He finished the game with 0 points in 17 minutes of action.

After the game, Oats said he went with the players he felt “gave us the best chance to win” against LSU.

“I’ll just say this, and I’m not going to talk any more about playing time stuff, we went with the guys in the second half that thought gave us the best chance to win this game, and we won the game,” Oats said.

It was a particularly bad game for Sears, who has established himself as one of the best guards in the country. This was just the 2nd time he’s gone scoreless during his 3 seasons with Alabama. The other occasion was also earlier this season in Alabama’s loss to Illinois.

Later on when speaking with the Crimson Tide Sports Network, Oats indicated he felt some players overlooked LSU due to its poor record in SEC play.

“You hope the maturity raises to a level where they understand, these guys are high-major basketball players for a reason,” Oats said. “The records don’t really matter at times. LSU had a week off. We tried to explain that to our guys.

“I thought some of the guys maybe were ready and some weren’t. I got to do a better job as a coach making sure everybody is ready to go.”

Oats wasn’t necessarily talking about Sears specifically in that answer, but it’s clear the Alabama coach wasn’t thrilled with his team’s preparation for LSU.

Alabama will be in action again on Wednesday night against Mississippi State.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.

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