Nate Oats offers assesment of where Alabama's point guard depth is without Mark Sears, Labaron Philon

Alabama lost a lot from last season’s roster both in the frontcourt as well as the backcourt, namely with Mark Sears out of eligibility and Labaron Philon deciding to remain in the 2025 NBA Draft. That leaves the Tide looking for who, or how, they’re going to play at the point guard position next year.

Nate Oats addressed the point guard depth for ‘Bama while at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am last week in Hoover. He knows it is a bit of a question for them considering the options who could play there but maybe aren’t necessarily true points.

“You know what, we’d like to get – you know, obviously, we think (Latrell) Wrightsell and (Houston) Mallette can play a little point guard,” said Oats. “That’s definitely a little bit of an issue. (Aden) Holloway is definitely there. And then we do think that, Amari (Allen) and Davion (Hannah) (can).”

Sears, a two-time Consesus All-American and three-time selection as All-SEC, averaged 18.6 points (40.3% FG, 34.5% 3PT on 2.4 makes) and 5.1 assists in his third and final season with the program while Philon, a selection as All-SEC Freshman, posted 10.6 points (45.2% FG, 31.5% 3PT), 3.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. They were the team’s respective leaders in points, assists, and steals in accounting for over 30% of their scoring and steals and over 53% of their assists.

With them now both going pro, Alabama is returning a handful of guards like Holloway as well as Wrightsell and Mattelle coming off season-ending injuries. They’re then adding Jalil Bethea (Miami) from the portal, with other transfer options out there still, and then Hannah and Allen, as part of their Top-10 incoming recruiting class, in Tuscaloosa.

That said, Oats also mentioned that the Tide could be a bit untraditional at point guard with this team. He thought back to things they’ve done in the past with capable forwards running the offense too while allowing all of those guard to play off the ball as well.

“If you go back to our second year, think about how we played with Herb (Jones)? You know, we started Herb and really kind of had three two-guards around him, if you remember, with (Josh) Primo, (Jaden) Shackelford, and (John) Petty and then, you know, Keon Ellis started a little bit too. All three of those guys? None of them were point guards,” said Oats.

“We could play where you’ve got a big creating, which, if you look at some of what we’ve done and maybe what we’re going to bring in and what we’re looking at. We don’t necessarily have to play with just a point guard with the way we’ve played and kind of how we have with multiple handlers, playing as fast as we do,” said Oats. “I think you can play with kind of like a, a three of a four handling the ball a lot and being a creator for us with how well some of those guys shoot it off the ball too.”

It’s going to be difficult to replace a pair of guards who could be picks in the upcoming draft in June. Alabama has options, though, to decide on over the summer in time for tip-off of next season.