Zakai Zeigler: Tennessee needs 'underdog mindset' to avoid more slow starts

LSU went six minutes, 49 seconds without scoring in the first half Tuesday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge. All No. 5 Tennessee could do, though, was score seven points, turning a 15-14 lead into a 22-14 lead. 

“They started switching the other night at LSU,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Friday afternoon. “We had prepared for them to be in drop coverage, which they’d been in most of the time, what we had watched. 

“And so they came out and was started switching the ball screens and those type things. And it took us longer to adjust than you’d like.”

But it wasn’t just a problem at LSU. 

A slow start at Texas A&M had the Aggies up nine points by the second media timeout last Saturday at Reed Arena in College Station. An even slower start at Food City Center on February 15 saw Vanderbilt build its lead to as much as 16 points in the first half, before the Vols woke up after halftime.

Tennessee was down nine in the first half at Kentucky on February 11 and 11 in the first minute of the second half against Missouri at home on February 5. 

The Vols rallied to win all those games, aside from the 75-64 loss at Rupp Arena, having won six of their last seven dating back to the start of February. But it’s a problem that has to be solved before the postseason arrives. 

“We’ve turned it over sometimes in ways that we can’t,” Barnes said, “but again, we’ve got to give credit to our opponent because I don’t think we’re trying to turn it over. But for whatever reason, we have.”

No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 6 Alabama, Saturday, 4 p.m. ET

The opponent will be unforgiving Saturday, when No. 5 Tennessee (23-5, 9-5 SEC) hosts No. 6 Alabama (23-5, 12-3) in a 4 p.m. Eastern Time start (TV: ESPN) inside a sold-out Food City Center. 

A slow start would be hard to come back from against the Crimson Tide’s No. 3-ranked offense, one that is coming off an 111-point outing in a 38-point win over No. 24 Mississippi State, which included 22 made 3-point field goals. 

Alabama scored 107 against Oklahoma, 103 at Texas and at home against Vanderbilt and 102 at Kentucky. And that’s just SEC play. There were four more games over 100 points in non-conference play. 

“They’re tough, they’re physical,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said of Tennessee on Friday. “ … (They) take care of the ball. So, I mean, this is typical of a Tennessee team since I’ve been in the league.”

‘If you’re thinking about every little thing you do, you’re not going to be able to play’

The Vols will be locked in to the scouting report early against the Crimson Tide. But they can’t be too locked in.

That’s the fine line that senior point guard Zakai Zeigler tried to walk Friday afternoon when asked about the slow starts.

“I feel like we got to come out with more of an underdog mindset,” Zeigler said, “and I feel like in the first half we look a lot like, we’ll look too much into the scouting report I feel like. 

“Listening to the game plan is important, but I feel like we’ll look too deep into the scouting report instead of going, all right, let’s just go out there. We’re going to follow the game plan, but we’re going to play and we going to just flow out there.”

Is Tennessee too tight to start games? Zeigler said that wasn’t the right term for it. 

“I feel like we can be so locked in on doing everything right, doing everything like perfect instead of playing,” Zeigler said. “Because, and this goes for anybody, even if you’re not doing anything with a scouting report, if you’re not just going out there playing, if you’re thinking about every little thing you do, you’re not going to be able to play.”

Either way, to stay out of early holes, the Vols have to play more and think less. 

“I’ll just say going out there and playing more free from the jump,” Zeigler said, “rather than just thinking of every little detail we’re doing.”