Tennessee basketball will miss Zakai Zeigler, but his story is far from over

It’s November 21, 2021.

Tennessee basketball is in Year 3 of a rebuild under Rick Barnes following the NBA departures of Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone. The Vols are facing North Carolina, a Tar Heels squad that will fall just short of a national title to Kansas in a little over 4 months.

None of that matters right now. For the time being, North Carolina’s Caleb Love and RJ Davis are having trouble staying afloat against Tennessee’s lightning quick point guard trio of Kennedy Chandler, Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler. By game’s end, the Tennessee trio will combine for 49 points, 16 assists and 5 steals in an 89-72 victory.

Hubert Davis and company expected as much from Chandler and Vescovi. But like everyone else, he and the Tar Heels wildly underestimated the 5-9 freshman Zeigler who — stop me if you’ve heard this before — was without a Division I offer just 5 months prior. Zeigler finished as Tennessee’s leading scorer with 18 points, 5 assists and 2 steals in just the 4th game of his college career.

To this day, folks continue to underestimate Zakai Zeigler, just as every Division I program outside of Tennessee did in the Summer of 2021. And 3 and a half years later, he and the Vols just keep winning.

What makes Zakai Zeigler great hasn’t changed since that win over the Tar Heels back in 2021. He’s a more efficient scorer, and somehow, he’s even more of a pest on defense. Zeigler has an exemplary work ethic and never, ever quits. Not in a million years. “That fight in him, that DNA, I wish I could bottle it,” said head coach Rick Barnes. “First time I saw him… he’s the same. What you see him do (in-game), he does every day in practice.”

Barnes has done nothing but rave about Zeigler for the past 4 years. You can tell he truly loves him, both as a basketball player and as a human being. At the Vol Tipoff Club in January of this year, Barnes insisted “He’s been a fighter his whole life, he’s been told he’s too small, he can’t do this, he can’t do that. To have him every day do what he does is an incredible blessing that God gave me, because I don’t know that I’d still be doing it. Because of him, he makes me enjoy practice every day.”

Zeigler will play his final college game very soon. He’s guaranteed just 5 more — 3 regular-season matchups, at least 1 SEC Tournament draw and at least 1 NCAA Tournament game. Precisely how many more games he’ll suit up for depends on himself, top scoring option Chaz Lanier and the rest of the 2024-25 Volunteers roster.

Tennessee’s white whale

At the end of last season, Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide beat Clemson to advance to the first Final Four in program history. Mark Sears — one of the best players in the SEC, then and now — scored a game-high 23 points. The Tide fell to UConn in the Final Four to end Year 5 of the Nate Oats era.

On the other side of the bracket, Dalton Knecht and Tennessee fell to Zach Edey and Purdue, despite Knecht’s herculean 39-point effort.

And still, a Final Four berth remains Tennessee’s white whale. The Vols are probably the most relevant program today without a matchup in the last weekend, alongside Mizzou, BYU and Xavier. Some Tennessee fans refer to this fact as a serious point of contention against Rick Barnes, though to the vast majority it elicits nothing more than reasonable criticism. Barnes is objectively one of the best college coaches in the game today, but it’s hard to take a look at reality and not come to the conclusion that he has underperformed when it matters most.

That 2019 team I mentioned at the top of the page didn’t make the Final Four. Kennedy Chandler, Zeigler and John Fulkerson couldn’t make the Final Four during their SEC Championship year. Even last year’s team, which featured one of the most talented Vols in history, couldn’t get the job done. But that’s the beauty and brutality of March: There are 67 losers and 1 winner.

Because of Zeigler, some key transfer additions and the growth of Jordan Gainey off the bench, these Vols will give Tennessee just as much opportunity to reach the Final Four as Dalton Knecht and company did in 2024. Tennessee is 23-5 with wins over Florida, Texas A&M, Missouri, Illinois, Louisville, Baylor and Mississippi State — all of which have cracked the top 25 at some point or another this season. According to KenPom the Vols boast the best overall defense in the country — tied with the 2023 team for the best defensive unit Barnes has ever had in Knoxville.

Why? Well, as mentioned, it starts with Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack in the defensive backcourt. Matt McMahon, LSU’s head coach, mentioned Tuesday night following the Tigers’ loss to Tennessee that Zeigler and Mashack are “like a lockdown cornerback in the NFL. You’re not going to beat them, and if you do, it’s very rare.” He later continued with his praise: “I’d argue Zeigler and Mashack are 2 of the 5 best individual defenders in the country.”

Then there’s Felix Okpara, who has quietly been one of the best rim protectors in college basketball. His presence within 5 feet of the basket mixed with suffocating ball pressure from Mashack and Zeigler must make opposing players feel like they’re trying to stack a deck of cards during an earthquake. It’s just not going to happen.

And while Tennessee has struggled some on the offensive end this year, there is visible improvement compared to last season, when players almost seemed to stand around and watch as Dalton Knecht did his thing. Chaz Lanier is no Knecht (those comparisons never made any sense), but he can absolutely shoot the lights out. Lanier is a cool 41.3% from behind the arc and has hit 13 of his last 26 shots from range. Lanier’s shooting motion in general is pure comedy — the ball hardly dips from the time it hits his hands to the time it hits the nylon. The North Florida transfer has the definition of a “catch and shoot” triple at his disposal, and there are few who have proven able to limit his production from range all year.

I’d argue the most overlooked player for Tennessee is Jordan Gainey, son of assistant coach Justin Gainey, and far from a backcourt addition for the sake of nepotism. No, Gainey earned his spot on the Vols roster. His 23 points earlier this year helped beat Illinois in Champaign. Gainey led the team when Zeigler and Charlotte transfer Igor Milicic missed the Vols’ rematch against Florida — dropping 16 points in a shorthanded, 20-point walloping of one of the top 5 teams in the nation.

But like every other team in the country, the goal is to string 6 wins together in mid-March. A lethal backcourt and veteran leadership are good places to start when looking for the next champion at the start of every tournament season.

Luckily for Tennessee, it has both.

Zakai Zeigler’s story isn’t finished yet

Tennessee’s most important game of the season will be played on March 1 against Alabama. Fitting, huh?

The Vols are going to be a top 2 seed in the tournament this season barring disaster. A win over Alabama on Saturday would give Tennessee an excellent chance of securing its first 1-seed in program history. Just in case you’re wondering, a 1-seed has won 6 of the last 7 national titles and 11 of the past 15. March Madness is disorderly by nature and can require some luck — 7-seed UConn won it all 10 years ago by beating 8-seed Kentucky — but being a 1-seed certainly helps a team’s case.

There is a lot of anticipation for March this season in Knoxville, Tennessee. Rick Barnes could go for another 5-10 years, but he’s also 70 years old and navigating a NIL landscape that has already moved a few major coaches to hang up the cleats/whistles. Nobody except Rick Barnes knows when Rick Barnes will retire, and nobody knows what Tennessee basketball will look like when that day comes.

But I can tell you this: Tennessee basketball will look a lot different without Zakai Zeigler at the helm of the offense (and defense) next year. It begs the question: If not now, when will Tennessee basketball compete in the Final Four and/or for a national title?

In a way, this fact works to Tennessee’s advantage. Zeigler is going to give everything he has and a little extra this March, and last time around he was 7 points away from the first Final Four berth in school history.

Zeigler did not play the majority of his minutes as the lead guard in 2022’s NCAA Tournament run, which ended in the Round of 32 to Michigan. He saw just 23 minutes of action in that Michigan game — a full 15 less than he would have these days. He also didn’t play in the tournament in 2023 after tearing his ACL to end the regular season.

Before Zeigler was born, doctors told his mother that he likely would not be able to walk. During his freshman year, a few months after the UNC win, Zeigler got the call that his family home had burned down while he was in Knoxville with the team. The following year, as mentioned above, Zeigler tore his ACL and had to miss the remainder of his sophomore season. And still, he was able to return from injury to lead his team to the Elite 8 just over a year later. Presented with excuse after excuse, Zeigler simply puts his head down and goes to work.

History is against Tennessee and the NCAA Tournament is chaotic and unforgivable. But the Vols have Zakai Zeigler, and that’s more than enough.

Ethan Stone

Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.