TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Mark Sears has seen his fortunes change dramatically over his four-plus-year college career. An un-heralded recruit who started his career at Ohio, Sears turned an impressive sophomore season into a transfer to Alabama, where he’s been one of the Tide’s best players over the last three seasons.

Sears earned his latest honor Tuesday night during the Tide’s 103-87 win over Vanderbilt. The veteran guard entered the game with 2,489 career points and surpassed 2,500 with a 21-point performance in the Tide’s win over the Commodores.

“First off, I wanna give all the honor and glory to God, and I just wanna thank all the great teammates I have because, without them, I wouldn’t be able to reach that milestone,” Sears told reporters after the game. “To get an ovation from the crowd, especially being from Alabama, it just means so much to me.”

Sears has been a valuable member of Alabama since his first season in 2022-23 when he was the second-leading scorer on the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Sears parlayed that into a first-team All-SEC and second-team All-America nod while helping Alabama reach its first Final Four in school history.

Those feats didn’t happen by accident. They are a byproduct of the hard work of the same kid who played just 24 games with five starts as a freshman in the Mid-American conference.

"To have that and then to go to a National Player of the Year candidate tells you everything you need to know about his work ethic," Oats said. "He didn’t shoot it particularly well his freshman year at Ohio even though once he got in the rotation he played pretty well. But he didn’t shoot it well. So between his freshman and his sophomore year, he essentially locked himself in the gym and turned himself into a shooter. He’s now one of the best shooters in the country and that’s through all hard work.

“So I’m gonna be talking about him for years down the road about what guys are capable of if they’re willing to work hard, put the time in and really do what you need to do. It takes a lot of work to be this good.”

After his latest achievement, Oats isn’t expecting any change in Sears’ high-level day-to-day approach to the game.

“He’s gonna be in tomorrow,” Oats said. “It’s an off day, but I guarantee you he’s gonna be in getting a shooting workout in. Every day he’s in here — wants to go before practice, wants to go back in the afternoon. Sometimes he comes back again in the evening”

Sears is the first Alabama player to pass 2,500 points in his career. The fifth-year guard set the single-season scoring record with 797 points in 2023-24 and ranks No. 14 on the Crimson Tide’s all-time scoring list with 1,610.

Alabama (16-3, 5-1 SEC) is firmly in the mix to win the conference title largely thanks to Sears’ averaging 18.9 points per game in his fifth season. He’s trusted his own unmatched process thus far and will continue to do so as he looks to achieve a few more team and individual milestones in his final season. The secret to his success is all down to a simple mindset.

“Just pour in the hard work, this will take care of itself and the game will show respect back,” Sears said. “It means a lot.”