Rick Barnes addresses Tennessee point guard situation after Zakai Zeigler injury

Rotten luck struck Tennessee hoops this week when point guard Zakai Zeigler went down for the year with a torn ACL against Arkansas. Simply put: he’s the engine of the team and a vital player on both ends of the court; his loss is massive. So, Volunteers coach Rick Barnes is left with a gaping hole on the perimeter with his lead playmaker down. According to him, UT will replace the injured Zeigler by committee, which requires guys like Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James to step up. Barnes says they’re plenty capable.

“They all have. You think about it, Josiah and Santi were our point guards four years ago. They played it,” said Barnes after the Arkansas win during which Zeigler was hurt. “Josiah, when he first came in, did that as much as anybody because we needed him to do it along with Jordan Bowden at that point in time I think. He had one more year with those guys. They all do it. They know what we do. Those guys have really good basketball IQ, they know what our offense is looking for. We’ve always told them, the more positions you can now from an execution standpoint is going to give you more of a chance to play.”

Obviously, getting Tyreke Key back healthy will be huge as well to help plug the gap left by Zakai Zeigler in the backcourt.

“We will get Tyreke back. We need him to get back. We know what he is capable of. We will do it I guess by committee if that is how you look at it but we have always kind of done that the last couple years.”

Lastly, Barnes also mentioned a player a bit off the radar to monitor as someone who could step up in place of the injured Zeigler.

“I’m not going to count out BJ Edwards either. He’s a guy that — you talk about the improvement of those big guys. He’s improved tremendously here in the last month. I’m sure we’ll need him going forward too.”

Edwards has only appeared in 13 games all year and just six in conference play, but it’s a good thing Barnes has the extra depth piece. You never know when you’ll need your 11th or 12th man, but after such a major injury, perhaps now is the time for Edwards to show what he has to offer.