What Alabama players said about beating Clemson, reaching first Final Four

LOS ANGELES – No. 4-seed Alabama defeated 6-seed Clemson, 89-82, Saturday night in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Following the win at Crypto.com Arena, Crimson Tide players Mark Sears, Jarin Stevenson and Aaron Estrada spoke to reporters on the dais. Below is everything the trio said after Alabama advanced to the program’s first-ever Final Four.

*** Editor’s Note: Quotes are courtesy of ASAP Sport.

Q. Jarin, you air balled a 3 in the first half when you guys were, like, 1-of-13 from long range. As a freshman, what gave you the confidence to keep on going and obviously turn things around in that second half?

JARIN STEVENSON: It’s mainly just practice. I knew just from practice I can knock those shots down. I’m just focusing on the next shot. Even though, yeah, I air balled one or two 3s, just focusing on the next shot, really just helping me shoot better.

Q. To do something never been done in the long history of your program, what are you feeling now?

MARK SEARS: Just feeling a lot of emotions. Being from Alabama, the state of Alabama, and to do it with this group of guys, it’s amazing.

Q. Coach talked about Jarin stepping up tonight. You’ve had different guys doing this the last three games. How big was he for you guys?

MARK SEARS: Like Coach said, he grew up tonight. We don’t win this game without him. When Girard was going off from 3, Jarin hit 3 after 3 after 3 and kept us in the ball game. He was huge tonight.

AARON ESTRADA: I agree with Mark. Jarin, he grew up tonight. I kept telling throughout the game, I think he passed only one 3 I threw to him. I said, just shoot the ball. Be confident. You’re built for this. You put the work in. He was shooting them and he started making them.

Q. Aaron and Mark, what does this say, a Final Four about the coach that’s sitting next to you. He’s a big-name coach but this is another level now. What does it say about him as a coach?

AARON ESTRADA: It’s evident. He’s just a great coach all around. He lost a lot from last year. Starting with the coaching staff. So just for him to rebuild a group like he got us, I think, like I said, it just goes to show how hardworking he is and how much of a competitor he is as well.

MARK SEARS: He gave us all the confidence in the world. When you’re playing for a coach like this that he wants you to shoot open shots, if you pass up a wide-open shot you’re going to hear about it when you go back to timeout.

Just playing for a coach that gives you the freedom within the system, it’s something you would love to be around and play for.

Q. Mark, can you walk me through what it’s like when you’re in the moment when those 3s are going down? I could kind of see you. I know you’re not looking at us in particular, but you’re looking towards the crowd. You’re blowing kisses, making all these faces. You’re really enjoying the moment. What does it feel to be in that moment?

MARK SEARS: Even though it’s intense we play the game because we have fun with it. To be in those moments you dream about it as a kid, and just to have fun with it because you remember, even though it’s a business to go out there, we still gotta have to have fun with it.

Q. Mark, your mom told me a couple things. One, that you wrote down your goals on a yellow sheet of paper and that has followed you over the years. Could you tell me about that? The other thing she said was when you were struggling, you were at Ohio and just couldn’t find your way back. She said you had the vision you were going to take the long road and it brought you some inner peace. Could you tell me about what those two things have meant to you getting here?

MARK SEARS: Coming out of high school, I wasn’t highly recruited. My parents, they kept encouraging me to never give up and stay focused, put God first. I just put the work in, trusted God, and now I’m here. That’s really all I can say.

Q. Jarin, the first game you played against Clemson, PJ Hall was able to do things against you. This time he was 6-for-14 and he fouled out. What changed in the mentality with him?

JARIN STEVENSON: Just working on my post defense and physicality. I’m working with Coach Dud, he taught me a few things, different things and holding my ground in the post and what to look out for. He taught me a lot of things. And working out with Hen, too, our strength coach. He got me stronger and ready for this moment.

Q. Your coaches talked a lot about mudita the last few days. How have you seen that vicarious enjoyment at work tonight?

AARON ESTRADA: I think that the mudita thing was probably the best thing that happened for this team, honestly, just because we have so many pieces on our team, and it’s hard to be consistent at this level without any support.

Just knowing that you have your brothers behind you and everybody in our program behind you, I think it just helps on a mental level. And ultimately that helps you just play better down the stretch, I think.

JARIN STEVENSON: With my two air-ball 3s, my guys had my back. They wanted me to keep shooting. Every time I went to the bench, the guys are high-fiving me and having my back and cheering me on.

And every time I was on the bench we locked each other’s arms and clapped and chant defense and stuff like that. I felt like it was there today.

NATE OATS: I was distracting him. He wants to talk about mudita. I was telling him that he was the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

MARK SEARS: Mudita, ever since we first heard of it when conference play started, it really stuck with us and really changed our season around, because we started out 6-5. And we heard the word mudita, and that changed our season around, because you could see it on our face cheering for others when they’re succeeding even though we’re not succeeding.

It changed us around. It really helped us win this Final Four because of mudita.

Q. What’s been a memorable moment so far just going on this run?

AARON ESTRADA: I would say for me, personally, just making the tournament. I’ve been in college for five years, and this is my first NCAA Tournament. So I would just say the whole experience for myself is memorable.

JARIN STEVENSON: There’s a lot of memorable moments so far. Again, I love Mo-D going off against Grand Canyon. That was very memorable, him getting rebounds and points, stuff like that, crashing hard.

And the last game with Grant Nelson, shooting the ball, knocking down shots, getting rebounds, hitting that and-one, put us up. I thought those were memorable.

MARK SEARS: Mine would be Jarin, he stepped up tonight. And we don’t win this game without him making those timely 3s. And just seeing him do that and him maturing and growing up, that’s really a memory. And being able to cut down those nets when the confetti came down and that’s for sure another memory.

NATE OATS: J-Smooth, that’s his nickname. He was smooth tonight.

Q. Aaron, when you’re down 13, thoughts at that time in the first half? It’s a long way to come back.

AARON ESTRADA: I think I credit our coaches and just like I said the whole mudita thing and next-play mentality. I think that, like I said, that was the best thing that probably happened to our team because, like I said, when you hit adversity in the game, it’s easy to fold.

And when we’re telling each other we’ve got each other’s back and we’re good and things like that, I think ultimately it just helps us go harder and play better.

Q. When someone like Nate Oats comes to you and says come to Alabama — I know there’s a lot of things; we can do this, we can do that — but it happened. How does it feel to have it come true in the first year here?

AARON ESTRADA: It feels really good. I believed him from the first time I spoke to him, honestly. I believed the vision. The work was evident. He had the No. 1 seeded team in the country — No. 1 in the country for a good portion of the year. I had no doubt. I think it was pretty easy for me to make my decision to come here.

Q. Aaron, after the UNC game you said that the haters were kind of your motivators for that game. Coming into this one, a little bit more swagger. What was the motivation this time?

AARON ESTRADA: It’s the same thing, man. They counted us out, really, from the very first game. And like I said, I’ve been doubted like my whole life, under-recruited, looked upon. And I think that it just added more fuel to everybody really.

They actually showed an edit before this game, too, of what everybody was saying about us. And I think that really, like I said, just fuels our fire even more when we play.

Q. Mark, how have you grown since you finally arrived here back at Alabama? How have you developed and what your expectations?

MARK SEARS: Coming to Alabama, my expectation, I pretty much achieved most of them and just to be able to do it and being from the state of Alabama means the world to me.

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