Chris Youngblood needed to make a change. In the first game of Alabama basketball’s NCAA Tournament run, the guard made just 28.6% of his field goal attempts, well below his regular 43.4% clip, finishing with seven points.

Off came the protective glasses he was wearing for the past three games.

“OK, I might have got in my head, went 1-for-6 last game,” Youngblood said in the locker room Sunday after Alabama beat Saint Mary’s 80-66.

Youndblood started wearing the glasses after Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara hit him in the eye during the Tide’s regular season finale. He donned them for three games, beginning with the SEC Tournament.

On Sunday, the removal seemed to work. Youngblood went 4-for-5 from the field, and was perfect on his three attempts from three-point range.

“I wasn’t feeling the tint,” Youngblood said. “They kept on getting smushed. I got OCD, so any type of print, I wanted to wipe off midgame.”

The Tuscaloosa native led Alabama in scoring for the second-round game, finishing with 13 points. The Crimson Tide was the first team to reach 80 points against the Gaels since 2022.

He also grabbed a steal and a rebound, something Alabama head coach Nate Oats pointed out in his postgame press conference.

“I told our guards, ‘We’ve got to have all of you in the mix. We need you getting rebounds. If they get it, we need to have you stripping their bigs after they get it,’” Oats said. “Labaron (Philon) ends up three steals, six defensive rebounds. Can’t say enough about our guards making tough plays, I thought, helping rebound. I thought we did a good job with some of that stuff.”

As expected, the game was a pace battle between the quick Alabama offense, and a Saint Mary’s team that tried to slow the game down. The Crimson Tide largely accomplished its goal of getting defensive rebounds to end Gael possessions, and lead in to transition buckets.

Next up, Alabama faces BYU in the Sweet 16.

“We’re one of the best offensive teams in the country, we play fast,” Youngblood said. “So if we’re getting stops, its kind of easier to play off stops. In transition we can score against anybody.”

The Crimson Tide and the Cougars will face off Thursday in Newark, N.J., with the winner moving on to battle either Duke or the winner of Arizona-Oregon in the Elite Eight.