Rick Barnes on Zakai Zeigler being SEC Defensive Player of the Year: 'He's special ... he spoils you as a coach'
Rick Barnes still remembers the thought. Back in August 2021, when Zakai Zeigler signed with Tennessee late in the recruiting cycle as a three-star no-name point guard prospect out of New York, Barnes had plans for a redshirt.
Then Zeigler showed up on campus, got on the floor with his new teammates and everything changed.
“There’s no way we knew that he would have the impact that he had when he got here,” Barnes said Friday morning. “I mean, really, I said it and we meant it. We were going to redshirt him.
“And when he walked on campus we’re like, we can’t do that because (of the) elite perimeter defense and the way he went at it.”
Zeigler has never stopped going at it during his Tennessee career. On Monday he was named the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC. He was on the league’s All-Defensive team, too, for the third time in as many years.
“He’s special,” Barnes said. “ … He spoils you as a coach because what you see him do every day. (What you see) in a game, that’s what he does every day. And you expect him to lead your team and you don’t expect him to ever have a down day, which he doesn’t have.
“If he’s had some, I could probably count them on one hand.”
Zakai Zeigler this season: 11.6 points, 6.0 assists, 2.6 rebounds, 30.5 minutes per game
All Zeigler did as a junior was return from a torn ACL — he suffered it on February 28, in the final home game of the season — without missing a game.
He started 25 of 31 games during the regular season, averaging career-highs with 11.6 points, 6.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds in a team-high 30.5 minutes per game, shooting 40.4% from the field and 35.3% from the 3-point line.
“He’s had a great year defensively and offensively,” Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey said on Monday, “and just coming back from what he came back from, it speaks volume about his toughness and his tenacity.
“And he’s just a pesky defender, man. He’s great and he energizes this team. And we’ve been a top-five defense the last three years and he’s had a lot to do with it. His initial point of defense really sets the tone for our guys and in this program.”
Zeigler has 58 steals in 31 games this season. He had 59 in 30 games last year and 60 in 35 games as a freshman in 2021-22.
He’s the front man of a Tennessee defense that is currently ranked No. 2 in KenPom.com‘s adjusted defensive efficiency, giving up 91.2 points per 100 possessions. The Vols finished at No. 1 in the metric last season and No. 3 in 2021-22.
“He’s one of the best defenders in the nation,” Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht said, “if not the best.”
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Zeigler has also been part of one of the winningest three-season runs in Tennessee basketball program history.
The Vols set a program record with 57 wins over back-to-back seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Over the last three seasons, Tennessee is currently sitting on 76 wins after going 27-8 in 2021-22, 25-11 last season and starting the postseason this year with a 24-7 record.
Zeigler in those three years has been named to the SEC’s 2022 All-Freshman team, 2023 All-SEC Second Team and 2024 All-SEC First Team, along with being the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and three-time pick for the All-Defensive Team.
At this point, nothing Zeigler does surprises Barnes.
“I don’t know if any of us could predict that he could do what he’s done and the way he’s done it,” Barnes said. “But as I’ve gotten to know him and really know him, I’m not surprised because he’s been a guy that has always found a way to get through whatever circumstance he’s been in with his family, off the court, whatever it is.
“… He’s just a person that has tremendous confidence. He’s a person who’s got tremendous faith in the fact that he knows he’s going find a way to get through the wilderness some way, somehow.”
