O'Gara: Alabama finally defended when it mattered, but man, Mark Sears is beyond special

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.

Alabama finally did what Nate Oats has been begging for — it defended. It defended as if the season was on the line because that’s what typically works in the NCAA Tournament. Even with Latrell Wrightsell going down with a head injury after contesting a Grand Canyon 3-point attempt, Alabama played its best defensive game since it held South Carolina to 47 points on Jan. 9.

Yeah, it helped that Grand Canyon played the Round of 32 game like it was in a 40-minute fire drill, and missing 14 free throws in a game that was decided by 9 points was part of that. At one point, commentator Robbie Hummel just said “this game is insane.” He’s right. The Tide won an insane game to advance to the Sweet 16, thanks in large part to the Tide defending like Nick Saban was on the sidelines.

You know this. That’s obvious.

But man, Mark Sears is insanely good at this.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here. The All-American was the straw that stirred the drink for the nation’s top offense. He’s been showered with accolades at every turn, so this might come off like I’m piling on when he probably wasn’t the main story of why Alabama advanced to the Sweet 16 in consecutive years for the first time since 1990-91. But it’s worth repeating that these are the glory days of Tide basketball, and Sears is leading the charge.

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It’s not just that Sears scored a game-high 26 points. It’s news when Sears isn’t Alabama’s leading scorer, which has only happened twice since the start of SEC play.

It’s not just that Sears will do the little things like yell at Grant Nelson when he takes a deep 3 that’s out of the offensive rhythm, which was exactly what you’d hope he’d do in an all-or-nothing game.

It’s not even that Sears has inspired such confidence as an 86% free-throw shooter that his mom mirrors her son’s follow-through… though that is the stuff of legend.

It’s that when Alabama surrendered the lead late on Sunday night and it faced a 3-point deficit with 6 minutes to play, Sears sparked a 17-3 run that put the game away for good. Even with a raucous Grand Canyon crowd in Spokane, Sears silenced the crowd, one smart play at a time (he did literally shush them when the game was decided). Whether that was attacking the basket and creating contact or showing patience off the screen and hitting Nick Pringle for the wrap-around pass and easy dunk, Sears did it all.

Shoot, think about this. That game felt like a fistfight. Length and athleticism were on full display. That dunk from Pringle off the Sears dish seemed like one of the few clean looks near the rim. In a game that probably made the casual Tide fan think it was a fall Saturday instead of a March Sunday, who was it that had a game-high 12 rebounds?

Sears. Like, the 6-1 dude that was often the smallest guy on the floor.

Think he wants it? You bet. You could see that from the first shot he took, which was a splashed 3-pointer that prompted a bit of emotion from the veteran point guard.

Watch Sears enough and you could convince yourself that he’s Alabama’s version of Jalen Brunson. The former Villanova guard and fellow southpaw could set the table like nobody in the sport, but when he needed to become that fearless scorer, he showed he could do that, too.

The obvious difference between those 2 is that one has a couple of rings and one has a couple of Sweet 16 appearances. The latter is Sears. The question is how far Sears can take the Tide.

It’s no secret that Alabama often lacks discipline, and not just on the defensive side of the ball. In the first half alone, Alabama got 2 technical fouls — one of which was for Pringle slamming a clipboard on the bench — it fouled a 3-point shooter twice and it committed 12 fouls. Sloppy? You bet. It’s not hard to envision a scenario in which some of those discipline issues come back to bite the Tide against No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16.

But it’s hard to envision a leader much better than Sears. When the ball is in his hands, good things are inevitable.

Even as recently as this time last week, it was fair to question if good things were inevitable for Alabama this year. The Tide allowed an average of 94 points and 34 free throws in its 10 games leading into the NCAA Tournament. But so far, 3 of those 4 NCAA Tournament halves were everything that Oats could’ve hoped for on the defensive side.

So often in March, though, a tight game is often decided by a simple question — who has the best player on the floor? On Sunday night, there wasn’t any doubt about who that was.

Sears was that guy. You’d have to be insane not to see that.