Getting to Know: Mark Sears
Mark Sears is a 6’1" 185-pound point guard, who is originally from Muscle Shoals who signed with Ohio University out of high school. Sears was a very good player coming out of high school and was severely underrated. You can see his size going against him with high-level programs, but he made up for that in several different ways.
Sears played at Muscle Shoals High School through his junior year, before transferring to the powerhouse Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia for his senior year. There were some really exciting matchups between Sears and former Alabama lottery pick Kira Lewis when they were area opponents. In high school, Sears dominated his competition with his speed and ability to get to the rim at will and finish efficiently. Not much has changed in college maintaining a 48% 2P% (2-point shooting percentage), which are almost always contested in the paint.
That is an area that Sears’ former AAU coach Scott Whittle said he improved the most since high school: “Mark has developed his ability to finish at the rim with both hands and use his change of pace to attack the basket and create open looks for himself and others.” Sears is a fantastic facilitator to go with his deep offensive bag, and that is an area that will flourish under Nate Oats’ free-flowing system.
In two seasons at Ohio, he showed tremendous growth from his freshman to sophomore year. He jumped from 8 points to 19.6, and 28% from three on 1.8 attempts to 40% on 4 attempts per game from year one to year two. His efficient three-point percentage is what Alabama lacked last season in the backcourt.
In his two full seasons at Ohio, he was First Team All-MAC (2021-2022), Lou Henson Award Finalist (nation’s top mid-major player), and MAC All-Freshman First Team (2020-2021). He finished his sophomore season averaging 19.7 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and nearly 2 steals per game. Sears was an elite scorer at Ohio scoring more than 20 points in 18 games last season. One thing that is underrated about Sears is his ability to grab rebounds at his size, and he showcased that at Ohio.
When he decided to transfer from Ohio, he had numerous high major programs contact him, and was one of the most sought-after transfer portal options. When he visited Alabama, he knew that was where he wanted to be and committed not long after. Sears has always been a high-energy player that has a motor that is always going, and he is a quick guard that can score in a variety of ways for a thin backcourt for Alabama while Jahvon Quinerly recovers from his injury.
If Sears can alleviate his slight turnover issues (3 per game) and maintain the three-point percentage he had last season, then his usage will give him an opportunity to be an All-SEC caliber player his first season at Alabama. It will be very interesting to see how Sears and Quinerly will coexist on the court at the same time, but that is a great problem to have.
I can see Quinerly playing off-ball more with Sears being the primary ballhandler, but both are able to play off because they’re such good three-point shooters. When asked what aspect of Sears’ game translates the best to the SEC, Whittle responded: “His midrange consistency coupled with his ability to shoot the 3 at a high level will serve him well keeping SEC defenses off-balance.”
Regardless of what happens when Quinerly comes back, Mark Sears has a huge opportunity to be the starting PG for a team that will likely be ranked top 25 in the preseason with high expectations. Sears is more than capable to carry that responsibility and role, but not without growing pains going from competition in the MAC to the SEC. With Sears being such a smart and coachable player, there should be no concerns of Sears being successful at Alabama this season and beyond.