The numbers show Zakai Zeigler getting back to his old self

Zakai Zeigler hit the goal he set for himself. Tennessee’s junior point guard wanted to be back on the floor for the season-opening game against Tennessee Tech on November 6 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

He played 12 minutes, scoring three points to go with five assists and a steal. The torn ACL that ended his sophomore season last February may have been officially behind him, but he still didn’t look like his old self. 

His minutes were limited through the first month of the season, slowly building his way up to 29 against Illinois on December 9. The limit was gone a week later, when he played 39 minutes in the win over North Carolina State. 

“I would just say each game I feel better and better,” Zeigler said Tuesday night after No. 5 Tennessee’s 87-50 win over Norfolk State. “Each game, each practice every day, I feel like I’m getting better and getting back to myself.

“I can’t really say a certain percentage of what it is, but I just feel like each game and each practice, I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to that.”

The numbers of late are backing it up.

Through the first seven games of the season, Zeigler made just 10 of 44 shots from the floor. He was 6-for-28 from the 3-point line. Since the December 5 win over George Mason, Zeigler has made 24 of 55 shots from the floor and is 13-for-31 from the 3-point line.

On Tuesday Zeigler scored a team-high 17 points while making a career-high five 3-pointers, going 5-for-10 from the 3-point line. 

For the season he’s up to 8.2 points per game, shooting 34.3% from the field and 32.2% from the 3-point line. He’s averaging 25.6 minutes per game while leading Tennessee in assists (59) and steals (20).

He has four or more assists in each of his last seven games, averaging 6.2 per game during that stretch. He has at least four steals in three of his last four games, too.

“I would say confidence,” Zeigler said Tuesday night when asked about his surge in recent weeks, “and I would really say these guys, they pick me up. When they see me put my head down, I don’t really usually do that a lot, but they’ve always had my back and they have given me the confidence that I had to get back to before I got hurt. To just be myself and just go out there and play. So I really just give it all to these guys and the coaches.”

Head coach Rick Barnes said he can see Zeigler getting back to his old self because he can see Zeigler seeing the game when he’s one the floor. 

“And that’s what we want to see defensively,” Barnes said. “That’s where he is a difference maker. And he gets up there in the back court and, (each) game, he seems to bother somebody back there for a little bit, which is a good thing to try to disrupt the other team. 

“But, do I think he’s all the way back?  I don’t, but I think he’s getting there.”

His shot is getting there, something Barnes never lost confidence in.

“I have watched him back during our individual workouts during the summer,” Barnes said, “the guy made 90 out of 100 NBA threes. He made 49 straight NBA threes.”

Confidence is the only way Zeigler approaches his shot, like he always has.

“Knowing that I’m open,” he said, “that it’s gonna go in and thinking no other way besides that. When I’m open, I gotta shoot it. If not, gotta keep moving. 

“But when I’m open, know my teammates have confidence in me, so I just gotta have that same confidence in myself like that.”