It felt like an easy road to the Elite Eight for Mark Sears and the Alabama Crimson Tide, eyeing a second consecutive trip to the Final Four under sixth-year coach Nate Oats.

Coming off a 113-point outing in the Sweet 16, No. 2 seed Alabama couldn’t get much going on offense, falling to Cooper Flagg and No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils in the East Region finals on Saturday.

Against Duke’s 7th-ranked defense (62.5 points/game allowed), Alabama shot a tournament-worst (TW) 35.4% from the field. They had eclipsed 50% from the field in each of their first three games.

Sears, in his final collegiate game, finished with six points (TW) on 2-of-12 shooting (16.7%, TW), zero rebounds (tied-TW) and six assists.

Despite a poor finale from Sears, it is clear that he will go down as one of the best Alabama basketball players of all time. And, after leading the Crimson Tide to their first Final Four appearance last season, Oats would agree.

Following the loss, Oats spoke on his senior guard, putting Sears in the same conversation as other Alabama greats, per AL.com’s Nick Kelly.

“You’ve got to put him up there with the greats,” Oats said of Sears.

In Sears’ penultimate game against No. 6 seed BYU in the Sweet 16, he led the team with 34 points and ten 3-pointers, helping Alabama break the record for most 3-pointers in a tournament game (.

Sears will now likely move on to professional basketball. He is projected by some to be a late second-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, while others have him going undrafted.