'He has been terrific': Zakai Zeigler named SEC Player of the Week
Sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler was named the SEC’s Player of the Week on Monday, after averaging 16.5 points, 8.5 assists, 3.0 steals and 2.5 rebounds while leading No. 2 Tennessee to wins over Georgia and No. 10 Texas.
In the 82-71 win over Texas on Saturday, Zeigler recorded his third double-double of the season and his second in the last three games, finishing with 22 points and 10 assists. He had 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals in the 70-41 win over Georgia on Wednesday.
The Vols (18-3, 7-1 SEC) are back on the road at Florida (12-9, 5-3) on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: ESPN2) looking to run their win streak to five games in a row.
Zakai Zeigler in January: 12.0 points, 8.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals
Zeigler over his last four games has been one of the best, most productive point guards in the country, totaling 69 points, 31 assists and13 rebounds in 34.3 minutes per game. During that span he’s shooting 52.2 percent (23-44) from the field and 38.7 percent (12-31) from the 3-point line.
The 5-foot-9, 171-pound Zeigler, who Tennessee signed as a relatively unknown three-star recruit out of Long Island, N.Y., in 2021, quickly made an impact with the Vols as a freshman, averaging 8.8 points, 2.7 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 22.1 minutes per game off the bench. He shot 38.1 percent from field and 35.2 percent from the 3-point line.
This season, though, Zeigler has developed into a pass-first, facilitating point guard running the Tennessee offense.
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“It’s something we talked to him about from last year on,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on Monday, “really starting to understand what a point guard does. He’s such a team player. I’m not sure there’s a guard in the country that has impacted the game as much as he has, especially in the month of January.”
Up Next: No. 2 Tennessee at Florida, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Over eight games in January, Zeigler added 12.0 points, 8.5 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals, with Tennessee going 7-1 during the month. Zeigler leads the SEC in assists with 108, including 58 in league play, and is second in the conference in steals, with 48.
“I mean, he has been terrific,” Barnes said, “every area that you could ask him to be. Zakai is very unselfish. He’s a tough, hard-nosed competitor that just wants to win. But he has really embraced the fact that he does want to play the game different than he had through the years. In terms of he can shoot the ball, he can score the ball, but really trying to make his teammates better. I would say it’s not just been this month, it’s been something he’s really worked on from the time that we started with this team, knowing that he needed to do that.
“Once it starts to click for him, and I think it is,” Barnes added, “I think he’s seeing the court in a whole different way than he has. I think his vision, seeing it, and I think it has slowed down for him. Seeing all nine guys on the floor, seeing what’s going on.”
