Labaron Philon is embracing a killer mindset this NCAA Tournament, and not just with his slashes through the lane and swipes on defense.
The freshman guard has donned villain-themed sneakers for each of Alabama’s first two games in the Big Dance. During the Crimson Tide’s first-round win over Robert Morris, Philon wore Nike Kobe 8s with Chucky from the horror film Child’s Play. Sunday, he went with a Saw-themed version of the same sneaker for Alabama’s 80-66 win over Saint Mary’s.
Philon was certainly a nightmare for Saint Mary’s guard Augustas Marciulionis. The senior came into the game averaging a team-high 14.3 points and 6.0 assists while shooting 45.1% from the floor and 34.5% from beyond the arc. Thanks to Philon, Marciulionis left the court Sunday with just 11 points and four assists on 3 of 11 shooting.
Following the game, Philon said he was given permission to lock down Marciulionis, guarding him exclusively throughout his time on the court. The freshman took that responsibility to heart, blanketing the star guard all afternoon.
“My plan was to wear him down, and if he was going to try to play 40 minutes, he was going to be tired after the game,” Philon said. “It’s all in the game plan, just trust it and staying locked into the scouting report and listen to the coaches when I’m on the court.”
Philon’s villain role led to him tallying a team-high three steals to go with a pair of blocks. One of those steals led to a fastbreak dunk on the other, as he lobbed the ball up to Grant Nelson for an alley-oop to extend Alabama’s lead to 72-60 with 5:20 remaining.
“It’s kind of fun, a lot of things happened that you don’t expect,” Philon said of his defensive role. “Steals came my way, and there was a free ball that came my way. I got some runouts, made some good passes, rebounds. It was just me just trying to make tough plays for my team.”
While Philon repped Chucky and Jigsaw this weekend, he draws his biggest villain inspiration from another classic horror-film character.
“Mike for sure,” Philon said, referencing Michael Myers from the Halloween film series. “All the Halloween movies, it all started when me and my dad, we just watched a lot of scary movies. I loved it.”
Despite recording a team-high five assists to go with six rebounds, Philon wasn’t as scary on the offensive end, scoring just 6 points on 2 of 8 shooting while missing both of his shots from beyond the arc. That came after he scored just 1 point to go with eight assists against Robert Morris in the first round.
Over his last three games, Philon is shooting just 2 of 18, including 1 of 7 from 3. However, with the way he played Sunday, he’s not too scared about the recent shooting slump.
“I don’t need to focus on shots,” Philon said. “Shots are going to come. Shots are going to go in, and shots are not going to go in. I don’t look at any of that stuff. I just think about playing hard every possession.”
Philon and No. 2 seed Alabama (27-8) will move on to the Sweet 16 where they will face No. 6 seed BYU (26-9) in Newark, New Jersey. The Cougars rank 25th nationally, averaging 81.2 points per game and are coming off a 91-89 upset over No. 3 seed Wisconsin.
Those numbers will be hard to maintain against Philon and his buzzsaw defending this week.
