Rick Barnes talks Tennessee point guard depth behind Zakai Zeigler
There’s no question about Tennessee’s starting point guard. Zakai Zeigler not only owns the position entering his senior season, but he’s the face of the basketball program and the longtime heart and soul.
Zeigler has averaged 10.4 points, 4.7 assists snd 2.5 rebounds over his 101 games with the Vols over the last three seasons, shooting 38.4% from the field and 33.5% from the 3-point line.
He’s coming off a junior season in which he had career numbers across the board, averaging 11.8 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 rebounds and shooting 39.3% from the field and 34.4 % from three.
The more pressing question for Rick Barnes entering the new season is who his backup point guard will be. That’s what he was asked Monday while speaking at the Knoxville Quarterback Club.
“The other day our first backup behind ‘Z’ was Jordan Gainey,” Barnes said. “We put him there.”
Up Next: No. 12 Tennessee vs. Indiana, Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, SEC Network+
The other day was Sunday’s closed scrimmage against Davidson. The first public look at Tennessee’s new team will be Sunday, when the Vols host Indiana in charity exhibition game (3 p.m. Eastern Time, SEC Network+) at Food City Center.
“Bishop Boswell is going to play some of that spot,” Barnes said, referring to the line freshman on Tennessee’s 2024-25 roster. “But it goes back to versatility. We like to work with all those guys, being able to handle the ball in all different types situations.”
Gainey, the senior guard and son of associate head coach Justin Gainey, averaged 6.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists last season, playing 18.3 minutes off the bench in his first season at Tennessee after transferring from USC Upstate.
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The 6-foot-4, 203-pound Boswell was the only prep signee in Tennessee’s 2024 recruiting class, joining the Vols as a four-star point guard prospect out of Myers Park High School in Charlotte.
Even Igor Milicic Jr., the 6-foot-10 senior transfer forward from Charlotte, has discussed the possibility of brining the ball up the court from time to time.
‘We’re hoping that we have the versatility to play a lot of different ways’
The emphasis Barnes reiterated Monday was versatility. Tennessee, with only 11 scholarship plays on the new roster, will have to have multiple players be able to fill multiple voids.
“We got Zakai and Jahmai (Mashack) back and you guys know about them,” Barnes said. “We’ve got to have JP (Estrella), we’ve got to have Cade (Phillips), we got to have Cam (Carr). Those guys have to really, really, really help us.”
Those three sophomores and make up half of the six returning scholarship players from last season. They’ll be relied on heavily in their second years.
“They all had some good moments (against Davidson).” Barnes said. “And they had some not so good moments. But it’s really the first time that, other than JP really, Cade and Cam were getting minutes and we were finding out how long and how hard they could play.
“But we’re hoping that we have the versatility to play a lot of different ways and I think we can.”
