Mark Sears, “We Want to Make Them Play to our Pace”

Cleveland, Ohio. - With the tempo differences between Alabama and Saint Mary's stark, Alabama guard Mark Sears will be one of the players who help dictate how the game is played, either at the blazing speed Alabama wants or the slow chokehold that Saint Mary's does.

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When Alabama has played slower-paced teams this season (Houston, Purdue, Texas A&M, Tennessee) the Crimson Tide has forced the opponents to speed up their typical performances.

According to Alabama guard Mark Sears, that will be the key to victory for Alabama on Sunday over Saint Mary's.

"Try to make them play to our pace. Try to get the ball out fast and push the ball out fast with the four seconds to get the ball up," Sears said.

What has Sears seen from Saint Mary's that could cause concern for the Tide on Sunday?

"They got a really good point guard, he makes some goals and got six assists per game. They got some really good bigs," Sears said. "They got some guys that really get on that offensive glass, gives them second chances, third chances, and fourth chances. you got to do a really good job taking them off the glass."

Sears also thinks the strength of the SEC has prepared his team for this tournament.

"This year, I haven't seen any conference like it," Sears said. "This year, it tops the last two years, especially over our last seven-game stretch. Seven ranked teams, and in our last three games, three top-five teams in the country. That really helped us to be battle-tested throughout this tournament."

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Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.