Rick Barnes updates injury timeline for standout point guard Zakai Zeigler

Rick Barnes and Tennessee basketball ran into a major problem near the end of last season. Star point guard Zakai Zeigler tore his ACL in the penultimate game of the regular season, forcing the Vols to completely change their approach to the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee did well enough under the circumstances. A limping Vols squad downed Duke in dominant fashion to reach the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to Final Four-bound FAU.

Zeigler underwent a successful surgery to repair the torn ACL in his knee on March 13, just before the Vols’ loss to the Owls. The hope at the time was that Zeigler would recover in time for the start of the 2023-24 season.

And this past week, Barnes – Tennessee’s head coach – updated Zeigler’s recovery timeline with 247Sports Tennessee writer Ben McKee, saying Zeigler is “ahead of where he wants to be” as of mid-July:

“If you ask him, he’d tell you right now he wants to practice today,” Barnes told media this week. “When we first started we came out doing some simple passing drills and he wanted to jump right in and we have to keep holding him back. I think if you talk to (trainer) Chad (Newman) and (strength coach) Garrett (Medenwald) they’d both tell you he’s ahead of where he wants to be but we’re not going to let (him) come back until we know he’s 100% ready and that won’t be until late in the fall probably…You know what’s in his DNA. I think he’s gone at this rehab the way you would expect him to do. He’s been a model patient in terms of doing it but he is impatient because he’s ready but we obviously won’t let that happen. We have a timetable with him and we’ll stick with that timetable.”

Tennessee held a point-by-committee approach to the end of last season when Zeigler was forced out of action. Santiago Vescovi, Jahmai Mashack and even Josiah-Jordan James ran the offense at times, to varying levels of success.

Newcomer Freddie Dilione is more of a combo guard than true point, but his presence on the roster, especially his offensive prowess, gives Tennessee some solid backup should Zeigler not be ready by the start of the season. Mashack and Vescovi, obviously, are good fallbacks as well.

Zakai Zeigler practicing, not at full go though.

Rick Barnes says if you ask Zakai, he wants to do everything at practice right now. Barnes says they won’t let him go full go until he is 100% though, which they anticipate will be late in the fall. pic.twitter.com/kc9CWNFQFU

— Karthik Venkataraman (@KarthikV_) July 11, 2023

Ethan Stone

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