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‘OU, I love it. That’s a part of me’: Alabama’s Mark Sears hasn’t forgotten time at Ohio

Published

10 months ago

March 20, 2025

‘OU, I love it. That’s a part of me’: Alabama’s Mark Sears hasn’t forgotten time at Ohio

CLEVELAND — Alabama coach Nate Oats was listening Thursday as his star point guard Mark Sears was talking about spending his first two years at Ohio University. It brought Oats back to his own time when he was head coach at the University at Buffalo.

For Oats specifically, he thought about his successes playing inside Rocket Arena, where his Crimson Tide team will open the NCAA tournament against Robert Morris Friday. However, he was reminded about Sears’ own Cleveland successes.

“After you brought it up, I looked on my phone,” Oats said Thursday. “Mark is 4-1 here in Cleveland, so he’s got an 80% winning percentage here. It’s pretty good. I thought I was good, where I’m 9-1, but he’s right there with me. So between the two of us, we’ve won a few games down here in the arena we’re going to play in.”

Sears hasn’t just won a lot of games in Cleveland. Long before he was an All-America point guard in the Southeastern Conference, he was learning the ropes of college basketball in Southeastern Ohio while playing from 2020-22 at Ohio.

“When I was at Ohio, I spent a lot of time developing, and they did a great job helping me be the player I am today,” Sears said Thursday. “Just like you said, I have some experience coming to Cleveland because we’ve been the past two times. One of those times, we had won it all here and the other time we fell short. OU, I love it. That’s a part of me.”

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Sears was raised in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but spent an extra season in prep school at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. From there, he ended up in Athens, where he appeared in 59 games over two seasons, with 40 starts, including all 35 in his last year with the Bobcats.

In Sears’ first season at Ohio, he averaged 8.5 points in 19.6 minutes per game. The Bobcats won the MAC Tournament in Cleveland to qualify for a COVID-impacted NCAA tournament, where they upset No. 4-seeded Virginia in the first round before losing in the second round to Creighton.

The next season, Sears was a full-time starter averaging 19.7 points in 35.7 minutes over 35 games. The Bobcats, though, lost to Kent State in the MAC semifinals and did not return to the NCAA Tournament.

After that season, Sears went into the transfer portal, which took him directly back to his sweet home Alabama.

With the amount of work he puts in his game outside of practice on his own in the offseason, and when he came to Alabama, he didn’t even go home. He went straight from Athens right to Tuscaloosa because he wanted to get a head start. He just got himself an apartment for a month and just went to work.

Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole’s team is tasked with trying to slow the high-octane Crimson Tide offense that scores national-best 91.1 points a game. That offense starts with Sears, who’s averaging 18.7 points while looking for his second All-American recognition in as many seasons.

Toole, though, has some institutional knowledge himself of Sears from his Ohio days.

“We actually scrimmaged him his freshman year when he was at Ohio U, and we were like, man, this guy is pretty good,” Toole said. “Next year, obviously, he’s at Alabama. He’s just so capable at any time of making a deep perimeter 3. He puts so much pressure on your defense with his ability to get to the rim and get fouled.”

Sears returns to Cleveland a highly decorated basketball player. He plays for one of the top teams in the entire sport.

Yet, Sears is coming into his final NCAA tournament much like he did while he was toiling as a freshman at Ohio.

“Still having that chip on their shoulder to want to get back,” Sears said. “At the mid-major level, you have to win the tournament to go to the championship, and at the high-major level, you’ve still got to win games to get a good seeding. When you get in that tournament, you just want to have that competitiveness to make it farther than you did last year.”

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

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Ohio State Transfer QB Lincoln Kienholz Commits to Louisville

Published

2 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

Ohio State Transfer QB Lincoln Kienholz Commits to Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Louisville football program, presumably, has their QB1 for the 2026 season.

Former Ohio State quarterback Lincoln Kienholz announced Saturday that he has committed to the Cardinals. He will join Louisville will two years of eligilbility.

Keinholz is Louisville’s second portal commitment of the cycle, joining Kentucky cornerback D.J. Waller. The duo are the first to offset 21 portal defections that UofL has seen so far. The 14-day transfer window officially opened up this past Friday, and is the only opportunity for players to enter following the removal of the spring window.

The 6-foot-2, 214-pound quarterback was involved in a highly competitive battle for the Buckeyes’ starting gig in the preseason, before ultimately losing out to eventual Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin. He saw action in seven games this past season, going 11-of-14 through the air for 139 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 66 yards and two scores on 11 attempts.

“Just a tremendous athlete,” OSU head coach Ryan Day said of Kienholz at Big Ten Media Days this past summer. “You pick a sport, he can do it. He’s like a four handicap [in golf]. He can hit the [baseball] out of the park. He was a major league baseball prospect. He can windmill dunk. He can do a lot of things.”

The Pierre, S.D. native spent three seasons in Columbus. As a true freshman in 2023, he played in three games, going 10-of-22 for 111 yards, while also rushing for two yards on six attempts. He did not log any stats during Ohio State’s 2024 national championship season.

Kienholz was a highly-regarded recruit coming out of high school, ranking as No. 194 prospect in the Class of 2023. He chose Ohio State over Illinois, Kansas State, Pitt, Washington, Wisconsin and others.

He has the inside track to be Louisville’s starter next season given recent roster movement. Previously, incoming true freshman Briggs Cherry was the lone scholarship quarterback on the roster after Deuce Adams, Brady Allen and Mason Mims all hit the transfer portal.

In their third season under head coach Jeff Brohm, Louisville went 9-4 overall, including a 4-4 mark in ACC play and a 27-22 win over Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl. The Cardinals have won at least nine games in all three seasons under Brohm, doing so for the first time since 2012-14.

Ohio

Ohio Lottery Pick 3 Midday, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for Dec. 28, 2025

Published

6 days ago

December 29, 2025

Press Room

The Ohio Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Dec. 28, 2025, results for each game:

Pick 3

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 9-0-9

Evening: 2-4-1

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 4

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 6-4-5-8

Evening: 4-6-2-6

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 5

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 6-8-6-2-0

Evening: 2-4-5-7-9

Check Pick 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Rolling Cash 5

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 7:05 p.m.

10-11-15-19-34

Check Rolling Cash 5 payouts and previous drawings here.

Lucky For Life

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 10:35 p.m.

12-17-25-34-42, Lucky Ball: 09

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Enquirer digital news director. You can send feedback using this form.

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Ohio Turnpike issues travel ban for high-profile vehicles due to high winds

Published

7 days ago

December 28, 2025

Press Room

Due to high winds in Northeast Ohio, the Ohio Turnpike has issued a travel ban for certain vehicles on Monday.

From 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m., some high-profile vehicles that may be affected by high wind speeds will be prohibited from using the turnpike.

The following vehicles will not be able to travel using the turnpike:

All high-profile (greater than 7-feet 6-inches in height) tow-behind trailers, campers, boats, and enclosed trailers. (This does not include trailers with fifth-wheel type trailers).
Commercial trucks towing an empty, single 53-foot box-type trailer.
All mobile homes, office trailers and livestock trailers.
All long combination vehicles (LCV) that include double-trailer combinations exceeding 90 feet in length. (Enclosed trailers only, including Conestoga type trailers).
All LCV triple-trailer combinations.
Two-axle buses longer than 40 feet.
Buses with three or more axles greater than 45 feet.

The travel ban will not impact the following vehicles:

Passenger cars and pickup trucks.
Commercial trucks towing a loaded, single 53-foot trailer.
Self-propelled motor homes.
Low-profile trailers.
Fold-down camper trailers.
Pickup trucks with slide-on camper units.
Vehicles towing fifth-wheel type trailers or any other type of trailers towed by passenger vehicles or pickup trucks that are not listed in the “prohibited” vehicles section above.
Commercial trucks towing a single flatbed or tanker trailer.
Commercial trucks towing a car hauler trailer.
Commercial trucks towing flatbed double-trailer combinations.
Commercial trucks towing any double-trailer combinations less than 90 feet.
Two-axle buses less than 40 feet.
Buses with three or more axles less than 45 feet.