Rick Barnes updates what's next for Tennessee, Zakai Zeigler after torn ACL

Rick Barnes was joking, but Zakai Zeigler was serious. The Tennessee head coach saw his sophomore point guard fresh off the torn ACL he suffered Tuesday night against Arkansas and said if he was really tough, he would come back and play through the injury.

“He said, ‘Well, I’m coming back then today, you tell me what I need to do,’” Barnes said Thursday afternoon, sharing the conversation before practice at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“And he would do that. I promise you if I told him we need you to tape it up as tight as you can and play, he would do it. I promise you. He’s the kind of guy that would do that if it would be for two minutes or three minutes to help his team.”

Zeigler, after driving baseline with 17:06 left in the first half Tuesday against the Razorbacks, crumpled in pain and was carried off the floor by team trainers after suffering the non-contact injury. An MRI on Wednesday confirmed the torn ACL for Zeigler, ending his sophomore season in the second to last game of the regular season.

Barnes didn’t need the confirmation to know what he saw with his own eyes on the floor Tuesday night.

“Just the way he went down,” Barnes said, “and you knew he was hurt because he never stays down. I’ve seen him go down before, turn his ankle or something, and he popped back up. When I walked up, where he was grabbing his leg, that was my first thought.

“Because, again, I’ve seen it too many times. So that was really my first thought. That’s what I thought had happened.”

Zakai Zeigler this season: 10.7 points, 5.3 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 steals in 28.7 minutes per game

Now No. 12 Tennessee (22-8, 11-6 SEC) moves on without Zeigler, starting at Auburn (19-11, 9-8) on Saturday (2 p.m. Eastern Time; ESPN) at Neville Arena.

Barnes on Tuesday night said it would be a committee approach to replace Zeigler at the point, with Santiago Vescovi, Jahmai Mahsack, Josiah-Jordan James and Tyreke Key as options. Key, Barnes said on Thursday, will be back for the Auburn game on Saturday after missing the last two due swelling around his right ankle.

But the rotation will start with, and rely most heavily on, Vescovi.

“Once the game starts,” Barnes said, “we get going, other than dead-ball situations, I mean, whoever gets (the ball) can go with it. Otherwise, we could change it throughout the game, but I would think Santi would be the first guy that would be there with it. But like I said, all those guys at some point in time has handled the ball. We’ll go that way with it.”

Zeigler opened the scoring against Arkansas on a layup at the 18:55 mark and recorded an assist 67 seconds later on an Olivier Nkamhoua dunk to make it a 4-0 lead for Tennessee. The assist gave him 161 on the season, tying the number Kennedy Chandler finished with over 34 games last season. 

Zeigler is tied with Nkamhoua as Tennessee’s second-leading scorer, averaging 10.7 points per game. He leads the Vols in assists — Vescovi’s 80 is second behind Zeigler’s 161 — and steals (59). He recorded his fifth double-double of the season in the win over South Carolina on Saturday. He is second on the team in minutes, averaging 28.7 minutes while playing in all 30 games before the injury.

There’s no set timetable for Zeigler’s return. He watched Thursday’s practice while seated on a scooter with a large brace covering his left leg. Barnes said he’s already started the pre-surgery process with Tennessee team trainer Chad Newman.

“With all the different guys I’ve had that have gone through this, they all kind of move at their own pace,” Barnes said. “I mean, I’ve had players that felt after six weeks they could play. Like right now, they’re doing rehab to get him ready for surgery.

Up Next: No. 12 Tennessee at Auburn, Saturday, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN

“He’s going to work at it as hard as anybody can possibly work at it. Whatever he has to do. I’ll always go back, he walked in here five days after school started and asserted himself right from the beginning. So whatever his rehab takes, whenever he’s ready to come back, he’ll come back and be ready to go.”

The emotional healing process has already started, too. Barnes said it was still surreal for Zeigler, a player known for playing through aches and pains.

“That’s who he is,” Barnes said. “You ask him how he is, ‘I’m good.’ I’ve seen him go down many times and get back up. But after the game he was emotional because when it happens, you’re like, ‘Did it really happen?’”

And if Barnes wasn’t kidding, and Tennessee’s trainers would allow it, Zeigler would be trying to play on like it didn’t happen.

“He’s such a spirited person and player,” Barnes said. “It’s tough seeing him back there like that because you know where his heart is and what he wants to do. He won’t lose his role on this team in terms of the way he’ll impact a game from the bench these last couple of games or weeks as we get through to the end of the year.

“He’ll stay really involved and engaged with his teammates.”