For decades upon decades, Alabama men’s basketball only managed to make one Elite Eight. Ever.
Wimp Sanderson’s Alabama teams, despite all the trips to the NCAA Tournament, never made it. Mark Gottfried’s Crimson Tide reached one in 2004.
Now, Nate Oats has led Alabama to the Elite Eight twice, in back-to-back seasons.
To earn the latest spot, the No. 2 seeded Crimson Tide overwhelmed No. 6 seed BYU with 3-pointers, setting all sorts of records en route to a 113-88 victory over the Cougars on Thursday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. in the Sweet 16. Next up, Alabama will face the winner of Duke/Arizona on Saturday with a spot in the Final Four on the line.
Here are three takeaways from the game between Alabama and BYU.
Mark Sears leads onslaught from 3 in record-setting day
Remember that version of Mark Sears?
It had been a few weeks since he made an appearance, but he returned in a thunderous way against BYU. Sears, who had made only two 3-pointers all postseason prior to the Sweet 16, looked unstoppable from beyond the arc.
Three after three after three. BYU often let Sears take shots from deep early, and he took advantage. By halftime, Sears had made five triples on seven attempts. He finished the day 10 of 16 from beyond the arc with 34 total points.
Alabama followed his lead. BYU didn’t pressure much from beyond the arc early, and the Crimson Tide made the Cougars pay.
BYU started to pressure more there in the second half, but Alabama kept cooking. The Crimson Tide set the program record for triples in an NCAA Tournament game before the second half had even reached the halfway point.
Then Alabama broke the NCAA Tournament record for 3-pointers in a game with 22 when Sears hit his ninth of the day with 7:27 left in the game.
And still, the Crimson Tide wasn’t done putting its stamp in the record books. Chris Youngblood hit Alabama’s 24th triple with 3:39 left, which set a program record for most 3-pointers in one game. As a team, Alabama hit a total of 25 3-pointers, shooting 49% for the game from deep.
Aden Holloway steps up in second half
Sears picked up his third foul with about 13:30 left in the second half. That looked like a prime opportunity for the Cougars to make a run and jump back into the game.
Not so fast, said Holloway.
Right after Sears checked out of the game, BYU hit a triple to make it a 68-61 game. Then Holloway immediately responded with a 3-pointer of his own.
A few minutes later, the Cougars hit their next 3-pointer. Once again, immediately after, so did Holloway.
And he wasn’t done. The former Auburn guard kept rolling and draining shots from beyond the arc. In the end, he put together one of his best performances with the Crimson Tide as Alabama’s offense overwhelmed BYU.
Holloway finished the day with 23 points as he went 7-for-14 from deep.
Chris Youngblood joins in, too
Most days, a 19-point performance with five triples would probably earn player of the game honors.
Not in this one. Not as well as Sears and Holloway played. But Youngblood was a key part of the offensive onslaught too. He finished the day 6 of 12 from the field and 5 of 11 from deep.
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for Follow him on X and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.
