How fate and blessings brought Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack to Tennessee

Tennessee didn’t need a point guard in the summer of 2021. The Vols had already signed five-star point guard Kennedy Chandler the previous November, the in-state star from Memphis and soon-to-be starter in Knoxville.

But Rick Barnes and his staff went to Peach Jam that July — the biggest and best recruiting event of the summer — with an open scholarship and open eyes. Maybe the coaches could find an under-the-radar forward that could be developed in the coming years.

Or, Barnes thought, maybe a second point guard. 

“We knew (Chandler) wanted to be one-and-done,” Barnes said Friday, “I just mentioned to the coaches one day, maybe we should think about taking a point guard with that last scholarship. And we’d never done that.” 

Tennessee’s assistant coaches had already been on site at Peach Jam and had already done their homework. Barnes joined them later on in the event and was told to give a look to Zakai Zeigler, a relatively unknown and unrated prospect out of New York with no big offers. 

“I was rolling in there to see somebody and just happened (the coaches) said let’s watch him,” Barnes said. “… I saw him just play an incredible game. And the way he plays now, that’s how he played that day.” 

It’s how he has played every day the last four years, going from an no-name recruit to a whirlwind recruitment — he was offered a scholarship, visited campus and committed to and signed with the Vols in a three-week span — to a Tennessee Basketball legend. 

“Zakai hit it running,” Barnes said, “and never looked back.”

Had the Vols not found Zeigler, and had Zeigler not found the Vols, his basketball career may have ended after high school, according to Barnes. 

“He left Augusta,” Barnes said, “didn’t know if he wanted to reclassify. He felt like he belonged at the highest level, but he was at a point where he thought, ‘Well, maybe I should just give this up.’ 

“But thankfully for us, the good Lord put us there at that time and fate worked out that God had a plan for him and us. It’s been a great four-year run.”

No. 4 Tennessee vs. South Carolina, Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Zeigler will be one of seven seniors honored by Tennessee on Saturday, when the fourth-ranked Vols (24-6, 11-6 SEC) host South Carolina (12-18, 2-15) on Senior Day at Food City Center.

Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack, Jordan Gainey, Chaz Lanier, Igor Milcic Jr. and Grant Hurst will all be honored on the court after the game. 

The loudest ovations will be reserved for Zeigler and Mashack, two players that have done nothing but win the last four years.

The two have never spent a week of their careers playing for an unranked Tennessee basketball team, going 77-for-77 in the polls.

With one more win this season, they’ll reach at least 25 wins for the fourth time in their four seasons. It would be just the ninth Tennessee season with 25 or more wins. 

“I really wish every coach would have a chance,” Barnes said, “to coach two guys that, you learn through them that hard work is a talent. Because I’ve never had to coach hard work with them … that’s a major talent. Their competitive spirit is a talent, their willingness to win.” 

Zeigler is putting the finishing touches on a career year, averaging 13.5 points, 7.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 34.2 minutes per game. He’s the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year and has been an All-SEC player each of the past three seasons, averaging 11.1 points, 5.3 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 29.0 minutes per game over his 130-game career.

‘(Jahmai Mashack) being here has been, really, a blessing’

Mashack has become known at Tennessee as one of the best perimeter defenders in college basketball while making the SEC Honor Roll and being named twice to the league’s community service team. He has started 51 times in 129 career games and this season is averaging a career-best 6.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.4 assists in 28.3 minutes per game.

Mashack’s recruitment couldn’t have been further from Zeigler’s. He was a four-star prospect and the No. 60 overall player in the 2021 class out of Fontana, California. The only adversity was COVID restrictions.

He never stepped foot on Tennessee’s campus before committing to and signing with the Vols — his only visit was a virtual one — after being recruited by former Tennessee assistant coach and current East Carolina head coach Mike Schwartz. 

All Schwartz would tell Barnes was that Mashack was exactly the kind of player he would want in his program. 

“I can remember the first time talking to his family,” Barnes said. “I hung up the phone thinking that would be a real blessing for me to have a chance to coach him and be around his family. They’ve been highly supportive of him, obviously, and they’re so close … him being here has been, really, a blessing.”

‘It’s something you can’t write … it’s a story. It’s storybook.’

Mashack described his bond with Zeigler over the last four years as its own blessing — one that he, nor anyone else, could have ever imagined. 

“It’s something that you can’t write,” Mashack said. “You have two guys from totally different places, totally different backgrounds. I’m from the West, he’s from the East. He grew up totally different than how I grew up. 

“And we’re meeting somewhere that we’re both unfamiliar with. Being able to make moments like we’ve had, it’s a story. It’s storybook.”

It’s a story that so far has included 103 wins, 77 straight weeks in the rankings, a Sweet Sixteen, an Elite Eight and, over the next week, a continued pursuit of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — something Tennessee has never had.

Mashack said winning has always been the only thing that mattered, another area where he and Zeigler have like minds. 

“I think that’s been the No. 1 goal of mine,” he said. “It wasn’t about stats. It wasn’t about accolades. It wasn’t about any achievements that had to do with me personally, but it was about getting the job done. The goal in this game is to win, and any way you have to do that, you’re gonna go and do that.

“I think Zakai came in with the same energy, that same competitiveness. And I think when you have two guys with the same goal and kind of wanting to do whatever you can to fulfill that goal, I think you get success like this. Winning was the No. 1 focus for both of us.”

Mashack described Zeigler as the heart of the Vols, while he’s provides the soul.  

“We come together and we create something special,” Mashack said. “But that’s just how we’ve been all four years. We’ve had each other’s back, and we want it to go as far as possible in being winning players.” 

Whenever it ends, wherever it ends, Zeigler and Mashack will go out representing everything the Tennessee program has stood for under Barnes.

“I think they both have lived up to our motto, ‘It’s not about me’,” Barnes said, “because they have never made it about them. Even when the (NCAA) Transfer Portal started, all that started to happen in NIL, all that, it was always about what can they do to make this program better?”