Rick Barnes on Zakai Zeigler: 'The guy has been an incredible blessing for me'

The sequence couldn’t have been more fitting. Zakai Zeigler coming up with a hustle steal on a backcourt inbound Wednesday night against Georgia, then finding and passing to a cutting Jordan Gainey who converted the turnover into a layup.

It was part of a dominant stretch for No. 6 Tennessee to start the second half, with the Vols going on a 26-4 run to turn a 26-25 halftime deficit into a 51-30 lead in less than eight minutes. 

During the run, Zeigler hit three 3-pointers — over a span of just 70 seconds, bringing the Food City Center crowd to a roar — and had four assists, three steals and an offensive rebound.

“All that,” head coach Rick Barnes said during his postgame press conference, “all the little things, (he was) just really truly being Zakai. Trying to find a way to impact the game, whether it’s 94 feet away. His six steals were huge. That’s huge. Just really being who he is.”

for the history books

the 213th steal of Zakai Zeigler's career—most by any player in program history

(fitting that it led to an assist) pic.twitter.com/4ur3q0mluP

— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) January 16, 2025

The steal with 15:55 left in the second half, leading to the Gainey layup, made Zeigler Tennessee’s new all-time career steals leader with 213, passing Santiago Vescovi’s total of 212. 

Zeigler’s six steals in the 74-56 win over Georgia were a career high, giving him 215 in 118 games. It was his second game this season with five or more steals and the fifth time he had at least five in a game during his storied career. 

“He tries to disrupt play, obviously,” Barnes said. 

Zeigler has been disrupting play since Day 1 at Tennessee. He had 60 steals as a freshman in 35 games in 2021-22, 59 in 30 games as a sophomore in 2022-23 and a career-high 62 steals in 36 games last season.

Zakai Zeigler this season: 12.1 points, 7.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 2.0 steals, 33.9 minutes per game

He finished Wednesday’s game with 16 points and seven assists to go with the six steals, now up to 34 steals in 17 games this season. He’s also averaging 12.1 points, 7.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds in 33.9 minutes per game, all would-be career highs.

“Very few guys can do what he does,” Barnes said, “the way he impacts the game on both ends, his defense and how hard he (plays).”

The way Barnes describes Zeigler, he may be the biggest steal of his coaching career.

Zeigler has turned a four-week recruitment late in the summer of 2021 into a four-year star run at Tennessee, going from a no-name three-star recruit from New York to the face of the program in Knoxville and the heart and soul of the Vols.

“The guy has been an incredible blessing for me personally,” Barnes said. “I remember I saw him play one time in high school, the last week of the summer.” 

“What he does,” Barnes added, “… he does it every day. It’s just who he is. It’s in his DNA and it’s really a blessing as a coach to have a guy like that.”

Zeigler did it in practice Tuesday morning, treating five-on-five scrimmage work with the same intensity as an NCAA Tournament game. He challenged foul calls on his team, pleaded for foul calls on the other team and raced up and down the floor in full-on, no-holds-barred competition. 

“His confidence level, his competitive spirit,” Barnes said, “it definitely rubs off on his teammates. It really does.”

‘He has been, really and truly, one of the great Volunteers’

Barnes kept searching for the right words to describe Zeigler after Wednesday’s game and kept struggling to quantify exactly what he means — to him on a personal level, to this team, to the Tennessee Basketball program.

“I’ll tell you what,” Barnes said, “I don’t know what I do without him.” 

“I mean,” Barnes added later, “he’s my comfort blanket. He really is … it’s a blessing to have had him with us.”

The steals record — 215 and counting with 14 games left in the regular season — just paint another picture of that blessing.

“It’s fitting that he’s done what he’s done when you think about his steals,” Barnes said. “You think about all those types of things and what he’s done. I mean, he has been, really and truly, one of the great Volunteers, I’m telling you.

“It’s just amazing what he does and the way he goes about it every single day.”