Nate Oats caused a stir during Alabama basketball’s win over LSU Saturday, when he benched Mark Sears for the second half. Oats said at the time that it was a coaching decision, noting he wanted to get more defensive effort from his lineup.

On Tuesday, ahead of the Crimson Tide’s Wednesday trip to Mississippi State, Oats praised how Sears had performed in practice after the benching.

“I think he’s had the best two days of practice leading into a game since, probably he’s been here,” Oats told reporters Tuesday. “We kind of poll our guys on who – we have them grade themselves as a team in various categories after practice. I picked this up when I went to (Dallas Mavericks) training camp a couple years ago, I thought it was good and we’ve been doing it with our guys. We have them vote a practice MVP.

“Cliff (Omoruyi) and Mark, between the two of them had every vote for practice MVP yesterday. So not only did I think he had a great practice, his teammates thought he had a great practice. I thought he repeated it with another great practice today.

Still, Oats said he wasn’t sure if Sears would be back in the starting lineup for the Mississippi State game.

“I don’t really know who’s going to start this game,” Oats said.

Oats said Sears wasn’t the only player on the verge of getting benched in the LSU game.

“It was Mark and Cliff,” Oats said. “For various reasons, Cliff got the opportunity to then coming and play. But I think the message sent, and it’s the message we try to send in all of our decisions is, there’s nobody above the program, including the head coach.”

Alabama and Mississippi State are scheduled to face off at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday in Starkville. The game will be aired on the SEC Network.