'We're going to rain them': The game plan behind Alabama's record-setting NCAA tournament win over BYU

NEWARK, N.J. — On a record-setting night for Alabama, Nate Oats invoked the name of one of basketball’s most-heralded offensive minds.

“Everybody questions whether we had the defense to win. For some reason nobody was talking about our offense, though,” the Alabama head coach said following Alabama’s 113-88 demolition of BYU in the Sweet 16. “We’ve gotten to know Mike D’Antoni a little bit. He made the point, your offense only has to be one point in efficiency better than your defense to win the game.”

With all due respect to D’Antoni and the seven-seconds-or-less mantra, what Alabama did on Thursday night was jaw-dropping, as Mark Sears, Aden Holloway and Chris Youngblood hit 21 of an NCAA tournament-record 25 3-pointers in the regional semifinal. Sears alone hit a career-best 10, en route to a game-high 34 points and sending the Crimson Tide to the Elite Eight for the second straight year — a first for the Alabama men’s basketball program.

What’s even more remarkable is Sears — the leading scorer on the nation’s most prolific offense — entered Thursday’s game shooting just 5-for-35 from distance in his previous six games.

Before the Sweet 16, Oats said he offered the fifth-year senior a bit of a math lesson.

“I told Sears there’s a thing called regression to the mean,” Oats said. “He’s not a 14 percent shooter, obviously.”

Alabama guard Mark Sears had a career night against BYU and the Crimson Tide set several NCAA tournament records on Thursday. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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Sears didn’t just regress to the mean on Thursday, he did a full 180-degree turn on his recent shooting slump and powered Alabama to its ninth 100-plus point game of the season.

“I told Mark he’s playing chess, not checkers. He just kind of set everybody up with that 5-of-35 thinking he was in a slump and he’s going to come out and shoot — 63 percent ain’t bad,” Oats said.

Algebra, geometry, chess nor checkers can’t really quantify a night like Sears had, especially considering his shooting struggles coming in. No, the only explanation is the old basketball cliché — shooters shoot.

“Even when I was shooting 14 percent my confidence was still high,” Sears said. “I never stopped doubting myself and stopped believing in myself, and my teammates kept encouraging me to keep shooting it, keep shooting it, keep shooting it. That just shows trust in them that even when I’m not at my highest peak, they still trust me and want me to shoot the ball.”

Ironically, Alabama entered the Prudential Center as the lesser of the two teams when it came to shooting beyond the arc. Although the Crimson Tide were a top-20 unit from distance, BYU was the No. 11 team in the country in 3-pointers made this season. Oats, who became Alabama’s all-time leader in NCAA tournament wins Thursday night, said the Cougars’ defense dictated how Sears and Co. would attack.

“[BYU] had been going under ball screens just about every game we watched,” Oats said. “I told both those guys, Holloway and Sears, man, I hope they go under us because we’re going to rain them.”

It didn’t just rain in New Jersey on Thursday night, it poured.

In addition to the record 25 3-pointers made, Alabama made history with 51 attempts, meaning of the Crimson Tide’s 66 total shots, more than 77 percent were from distance. All three Alabama standouts offered their own takes on the shooting spectacle they put together on one of college basketball’s biggest stages.

“The way they played defense, they’re in the gaps heavy,” Youngblood explained. “But we have proper spacing, and if we don’t take one dribble too much or we’re playing selfish, ready to move the ball, we’re capable of having 80 percent, 77 percent of our shots being 3s. That’s pretty simple.”

“I was just in a zone,” Sears said. “Once I saw the first 3 fall in, I felt the basket was as big as an ocean. And every time I shot I felt like it was going in. I just lost myself in the game and just let everything else happen.”

“I would say just for these two guys next to me, an open 3 is kind of a layup,” Holloway said.

BYU attempted several times to make a run before Alabama ultimately turned things sideways. The Cougars owned a 50-16 advantage in the paint as well as having more points off turnovers and on second chances. Ultimately, none of it mattered because every time the BYU faithful felt momentum swinging their way, a Crimson Tide dagger would snuff it out.

“It was a perfect storm for them, just because I think the 3-point line can be very paralyzing and we play a similar style,” BYU head coach Kevin Young said. “They’re more dynamic than we are clearly, but I know Nate and their staff, and I think we share a lot of similar philosophies. So I think we tried to use what teams do against us defensively and have that in mind.

“That’s a really good basketball team. I mean, it was an all-time night for them. It felt like there was nothing we could do at times.”

Now, as Alabama prepares to take the court with a second consecutive Final Four trip on the line, Oats doesn’t want his team thinking the forecast will be the same on Saturday.

“People ask me how many 3s would you like to get off every game?” Oats said. “Well, kind of depends on how they guard us. If they guard us like we knew BYU was going to and stay heaving in the gaps, we’ll take 50, 51. If they’re going to build out, we’ve had … multiple games we’ve got 50, 60-plus points in the paint, too.”

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‘We’re going to rain them’: The game plan behind Alabama’s record-setting NCAA tournament win over BYU

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