Tennessee's Troy Henderson using three-star recruiting ranking 'as fuel' at point guard

Troy Henderson knows the parallels. An undersized, under-recruited three-star point guard picking up an offer from Tennessee Basketball late in the process, quickly committing to and signing with the Vols and enrolling in Knoxville.

It was the whirlwind path that Zakai Zeigler took in 2021. It was the same path that Henderson took in April. 

“When I was on my visit here, I actually got to speak with him,” Henderson said of Zeigler on Monday, “and just, he’s giving me good feedback on like what to expect coming in as a freshman, because he did the same thing coming as a freshman and playing under a senior guard.”

Zeigler actually joined Tennessee recruiting class in 2021 that already included five-star freshman point guard Kennedy Chandler, the assumed starter.

Now Henderson comes to Tennessee after the Vols had already added Ja’Kobi Gillespi out of the NCAA Transfer Portal, one of the biggest names available in the spring and the player tasked with replacing Zeigler at point guard. 

“(Zeigler) was giving me good feedback on that,” Henderson said.

Troy Henderson ‘ready to compete’ at Tennessee

And then there is the on-court comparisons for the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Henderson and the 5-foot-9, 172-pound Zeigler.

“I feel like we got definitely similar games as far as our mindset,” Henderson said. “We’re coming in as smaller guards. I thought (our) mentality was the same.”

Henderson finished his prep career as the No. 259 overall player in the 2025 class. He was ranked No. 36 at point guard and No. 13 overall in the state of Virginia, out of John Marshall High School.

“I was very under-recruited coming out of high school,” Henderson said, “so yeah, I feel like I use that as fuel to make a name for myself every day. Come in ready to compete.”

Vols added Troy Henderson after release from Fordham signing

Henderson had signed with Fordham last November, but was released from his National Letter of Intent after head coach Keith Urgo was fired in March.

“Then the next day,” Henderson said, “it was just like Tennessee reached out. So it was just a blessing.”

And it was time to get to work. 

“It was also like, I gotta get ready, get prepared,” he said. “Even though you run every mile during the summer and you can work out how many times you want, but I feel like there’s nothing you can do to prepare for Tennessee basketball practice.”

Now that he’s on the floor with his new teammates, he has found more similarities at point guard, where he’s working alongside Gillespie.

“I feel like we feed off each other because we both can make plays for others,” Henderson said. “And when we have the ball in our hands, we’re just so effective getting downhill, getting to the paint. And I feel like the way we just set others. I feel like it’s very special.”