Zakai Zeigler named SEC Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-SEC
Zakai Zeigler didn’t just come back from the torn ACL that ended his sophomore season. He started 25 of 31 games for Tennessee this season, averaging career-highs with 11.6 points, 6.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds per in a team-high 30.5 minutes per game, shooting 40.4% from the field and 35.3% from the 3-point line.
And his defense was just as good. On Monday Zeigler was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-SEC and made the All-Defensive team.
Zeigler was First Team All-SEC alongside Dalton Knecht, the league’s Player of the Year. He was joined on the All-Defensive team by Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo.
Zeigler led the SEC in assists (185), was third in assist-turnover ratio (2.8) and was fourth in steals (58). He had four or more steals in seven games and three or more in nine games.
Rick Barnes: Zakai Zeigler ‘is just invaluable with what he does’
He scored in double-figures 17 times, including a career-high 26 points at Mississippi State on January 10 and at Kentucky on February 3. He had two double-doubles, with 17 points and 10 assists against Ole Miss and 26 points and 13 assists at Kentucky.
He flirted with triple-doubles with 13 points, five rebounds and seven assists in the 66-59 win at South Carolina last week, helping Tennessee clinch its first outright SEC regular-season championship since 2008, and at home against Texas A&M, with nine points, a career-high 14 assists and nine rebounds.
There has only been one triple-double in Tennessee’s program history, with Tyler Smith scoring 12 points to go with 10 rebounds and 10 assists against UNC Asheville in December 2008.
“He is a guy that impacts the game,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Zeigler after the win over Texas A&M. “If he makes shots, that is one thing, but him getting into the lane really spraying it the way he did and collapsing the defense and then giving guys the chance to catch it on the run and do some things, he is just invaluable with what he does.
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“What can you say about a guy on the court getting nine rebounds like that? Yet he is distributing the ball the way he did. He is a special player.”
Up Next: SEC Tournament, Friday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN
Zeigler had 17 points, nine assists and four rebounds in Tennessee’s 92-84 win over Auburn on February 28, playing on the one-year anniversary of the torn ACL he suffered last season against Arkansas.
“Well,” Zeigler said after the win over Auburn, “God is great. That’s all I can really say.”
Zeigler was injured three minutes into the win over Arkansas last year. He was with Tennessee at the SEC Tournament, but had to stay behind for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament after undergoing surgery on his injured knee.
He rejoined the Vols a week later for the Sweet Sixteen at Madison Square Garden.
“You know, it was tough last year, going down,” Zeigler said. “But (I) fought through adversity. The people around me, they just picked me up. God is great. That’s all I can really say.”
