As Nate Oats and Mark Sears have built the Alabama men’s basketball program into one of the nation’s top programs, the All-American guard has etched his name into numerous records in the record book.
The graduate student guard added to that lengthy list of accolades on Saturday.
With No. 8 Alabama’s win over No. 1 Auburn, Sears became the first player in SEC history to defeat three separate Associated Press No. 1 ranked opponents in his career, according to the SEC Network on X (formerly Twitter).
Mark Sears becomes the first player in SEC history to win three games over AP No. 1 opponents 😤
🐘 Beat No. 1 UNC on 11/27/2022
🐘 Beat No. 1 Houston on 12/10/2022
🐘 Beat No. 1 Auburn on 3/8/2025 pic.twitter.com/YCTRuequ8k— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 8, 2025
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Sears’ first win against an AP No. 1 team came during his first season at Alabama in 2022-23, when the Ohio transfer led the Crimson Tide to a 103-101 win over No. 1 UNC in the Phil Knight Invitational with a team-high 24 points. Two weeks later, Sears and Alabama defeated No. 1 Houston on the road at the Fertitta Center in Houston.
The 6-foot-1 guard delivered one of the biggest shots of his career at Alabama yet on Saturday, when he beat the buzzer with a leaping jumper inside the paint to beat No. 1 Auburn in overtime. It was just his third successfully made shot from the field for Sears on the afternoon, as he finished 3 of 9 shooting (1 of 4 from 3-point range).
“In my mind I was saying, ‘This is going to be a game winner,'” Sears told ESPN’s Molly McGrath after the game. “Coach drew up an amazing play for us to make a play.”
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Added Alabama coach Nate Oats in postgame: “When we needed him late, he came through and delivered. He bailed me out, because that play design wasn’t all that great, to be honest with you.”
Sears now enters his final SEC tournament averaging 17.9 points, 3.8 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 103 career games at Alabama, while shooting 45.1% from the field (38.2% 3-point range).
Sears will start his final postseason at Alabama on Friday, March 14 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, after the Crimson Tide secured a double-round bye in the tournament.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama’s Mark Sears first SEC player to beat three AP No. 1 teams
