Mark Sears is back, and trips to San Antonio for the 2025 Final Four are starting to look appealing in Tuscaloosa.
Sears, the key engine to Alabama’s historic 2024 roster, announced that he will return to the Crimson Tide for his final year of eligibility. He revealed his decision on social media.
The Muscle Shoals native had a career year last winter and spring, posting personal highs in points (21.5 per game), 3-point shooting (43.6%) and field goal percentage (50.8%), helping head coach Nate Oats and co. to their first national semifinals.
Sears’ decision comes on the NBA Draft’s eligibility deadline day. According to Oats, Sears had final visits scheduled with teams and would turn pro if an organization guaranteed selecting him in this summer’s two-round draft. Instead, Sears will come back to Coleman Coliseum a year after setting multiple single-season school records, like points in a season (797), games with 20-plus points (26) and free-throws (198).
Sears, Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell will be Alabama’s returning starters. Along with three four- and five-star freshmen and four transfers, UA will very likely enter the season as one of the top-ranked programs nationally. Despite losing five scholarship players to the transfer portal, Alabama kept amassing talent, and Sears will appear, at least externally, as the final piece to a fast-paced, blue-collar basketball puzzle; Assistant coach Preston Murphy summed it up well.
Sears, whose future was uncertain and led to UA acquiring a set of guard depth to pair with Wrightsell, was a second- and third-team all-American honoree on multiple lists and was a star of March Madness, scoring 121 points (second most in the NCAA Tournament).
Alabama awaits the decision of freshman forward Jarin Stevenson, who also entered the draft process.
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