The second-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide set an NCAA Tournament record for the most three-pointers made in a game on their way to a 113-88 win over the BYU Cougars, earning Bama its third Elite Eight berth all time.
“I mean, that was a fun game if you like offense,” said sixth-year Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats to start the postgame press conference. “That was fun for the fans, I’m sure at least for the Alabama fans.”
Senior guard Mark Sears led the charge for Crimson Tide. Coming into the game, he had made just one of his nine three-point attempts through the first two rounds of the tournament. That all changed on Thursday evening when Sears went ten for 16 from beyond the arc.
“I told Sears there’s a thing called regression to the mean,” Oats explained. “His last six games, he was shooting 14%, five of 35. He’s not a 14% shooter, obviously… I told Mark he was playing chess, not checkers. He just kind of set everybody up with that five of 35, thinking he was in a slump. He’s gonna come out, shoot 63% ain’t bad.”
“We’ve been working all week to prepare to get our shot right,” Sears added. “The amount of preparation we put in led to the success we had tonight… Even when I was shooting 14%, my confidence was still high. I never started doubting myself and stopped believing in myself.”
Sears, who led all players with 34 points, wasn’t the only person who had a good night from the three-point line. Senior guard Chris Youngblood tacked on five three-pointers of his own, finishing the game with 19 points.
EVERY ALABAMA THREE FROM THEIR RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE 🤯
25 THREES. UNREAL. 😱#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/HSAX4kHE3b
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 28, 2025
“The way they play defense, they’re in the gaps heavy,” he said. “If we have proper spacing, and if we don’t take one dribble too much, and we’re playing unselfish – ready to move the ball – we’re capable of having 77% of our shots being threes. That’s pretty simple.”
Sophomore guard Aden Holloway was another Alabama player who found his shot last night. He went six for 13 from beyond the arc in his 23-point outing.
“My teammates just found me, honestly,” Holloway said. “It was just a good game. My teammates found me. I just tried to not focus on shot-making and focus on everything else. And shot-making ended up working out a little bit.”
Prior to Nate Oats taking over the program, Alabama had reached the Elite Eight just once from 1912 to 2019. Now, with Oats at the helm, the Crimson Tide has advanced to the Elite Eight in back-to-back years.
“When I got the job, we didn’t have the transfer portal, eligible immediately, the NIL, so it was a little harder to turn it around immediately like you can now,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have some really good recruiters on staff to get us some very good players. We were fortunate to walk into some good players… We kinda turned it in year two [and] made that Sweet 16 run… I think the Alabama fans like us making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.”
The Crimson Tide will have arguably their toughest test of the season on Saturday when they face the number-one-seeded Duke Blue Devils. That game is scheduled to tip off at 8:49 p.m. EST.
