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Chaz Lanier, Zakai Zeigler join elite company as All-American Tennessee teammates

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 13 hours•

GrantRamey

Zakai Zeigler, Chaz Lanier, Tennessee Basketball | Tennessee Athletics
Zakai Zeigler, Chaz Lanier, Tennessee Basketball | Tennessee Athletics

Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier were named Third Team All-Americans by The Sporting News on Wednesday. In doing so, Tennessee’s two stars joined elite company. Zeigler and Lanier are the Tennessee’s first All-American teammates since Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld did so in 1975-76 and 176-77. 

Zeigler and Lanier are the fourth All-Americans during the Rick Barnes era. Grant Williams and Dalton Knecht were both consensus First Team All-Americans. 

Williams did so in 2018-19, when he won the SEC’s Player of the Year award for a second straight year. Knecht did so last season, after also being named SEC Player of the Year. 

Zakai Zeigler named SEC Defensive Player of Year for second straight season

Zeigler on Monday was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, as voted on by the league’s coaches, for a second straight season and Lanier was named Newcomer of the Year.

Zeigler was voted First Team All-SEC by the coaches while Lanier was Second Team All-SEC. On Tuesday the Associated Press voted Lanier First Team All-SEC while Zeigler made the second team.

SEC history was made on Monday when Zeigler became the first player to make the SEC coaches All-Defensive Team four times. He’s the third player to be named SEC Defensive Player of the Year multiple times, joining Robert Williams III (Texas A&M) and Jarvis Vernardo (Mississippi State). 

Zeigler finished the regular season averaging 13.1 points, 7.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 33.9 minutes per game. He was third in the SEC in steals, led the league in assists and was fourth in minutes. 

“The smallest member of The Sporting News All-America team manages to be a defensive force with his pressure against the basketball,” Mike DeCourcy wrote for The Sporting News, “and he’s among the elite as a creator … he almost never leaves the court because Rick Barnes prefers not to worry how they’ll do without him.

Lanier was Tennessee’s plug-and-play scoring threat out of the NCAA Transfer Portal, averaging 17.9 points per game after transferring to the Vols from Northern Florida. He shot 43.2% from the field and 40.5% from the 3-point line. 

He was fifth in the SEC in scoring and was seventh in 3-point field goal percentage. 

Chaz Lanier ‘showed himself to be a first-rate long-distance shooter’ for Tennessee

Lanier averaged 19.7 points per game in a breakout year at North Florida last season, shooing 44.0% from the 3-point line and 51.0% from the field. 

He made 105 3-pointers this season, becoming just the third Tennessee player to make 100 or more in a season, joining Chris Lofton and Santiago Vescovi. Lanier is 13 3-pointers away from matching Lofton’s single-season record of 118. 

“(Lanier) showed himself to be a first-rate long-distance shooter and consistent scorer,” DeCourcy wrote, “who was held to single-figure outputs just twice. He scored 29 in a win against Arkansas and 30 in an important win over Texas A&M.”

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