Brianna Paciorka/USA TODAY NETWORK
Tennessee’s hopes of a deep run in March may have ended midway through its game on the last night of February.
The Volunteers’ worst fears were confirmed Wednesday when men’s star point guard Zakai Zeigler was diagnosed with a torn ACL in his left knee after suffering a noncontact injury Tuesday in the first half against Arkansas. Now, a program and coach with a checkered history in March Madness will have to move forward without arguably their most important player.
In Zeigler’s first two years in Knoxville, he has emerged from an afterthought late signee into, as coach Rick Barnes put it earlier this season, “the DNA of our program.” Offensively, he’s the team’s only true point guard and often the only player capable of consistently beating his man off the bounce and getting into the teeth of the defense. And on the other end of the floor, Zeigler is regarded as one of the best defensive players in the country, named recently as a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award and leading the nation’s top-ranked defense in steals.
Simply put, when Tennessee has been at its best this season, it has usually been because Zeigler has been at his best. Optimism for a deep NCAA tournament run by the Vols is rooted in Tennessee’s big wins—victories over Kansas, Texas and Alabama. Zeigler scored 14 points and had four steals against the Jayhawks to lead Tennessee to a Battle 4 Atlantis title, had a dazzling 22 points and 10 assists when the Vols handled the Longhorns, and was the best player on the floor against Alabama when he had 15 points, eight assists and no turnovers.
Those wins by the Vols are why some of the team’s losses are so baffling. A team with wins against three of the top nine teams in KenPom’s rankings has had its share of head-scratching losses, from an early-season defeat to Colorado to surprising midseason losses to middling Florida and Vanderbilt. Too often, the common denominator in those losses has been an inability to consistently score, mustering just 54 points against Florida, 65 against Vanderbilt and under 60 points in both meetings against Kentucky. Tennessee’s offense ranks outside the top 50 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metric, holding back the No. 1 defense from a potential No. 1 seed.
It’s hard to imagine those offensive struggles getting much better without Zeigler’s ability to probe the defense and distribute. Increased ballhandling responsibilities will likely be heaped on veteran Santiago Vescovi, who doubles as the team’s best off-ball shooter. That could be problematic, considering Tennessee is shooting just 32% from three as a team and nearly 85% of Vescovi’s threes this year have been assisted on. And while Zeigler is shooting just 31% from deep this season, he is second on the team in made threes.
Barnes also said sophomore Jahmai Mashack, who had five assists against Arkansas and has seen his role increase of late, could also take on some point guard responsibilities, as could veteran Tyreke Key. Plus, Zeigler’s leadership and energy will be missed on the floor for Tennessee in high-stress March moments.
The Zeigler injury is the latest blow to a program that, under Barnes, has been snakebit in the NCAA tournament. In 2018, the bracket opened up nicely for a potential Final Four run after No. 1 Virginia was knocked out by UMBC, only for the Vols to lose in the second round to Loyola Chicago on a last-second shot that bounced off the rim multiple times before dropping through. In 2019, Tennnessee led twice in the final minute of regulation against Purdue in the Sweet 16 before losing in overtime. And last season, Tennessee came into the NCAA tournament red-hot after winning the SEC tournament, just to shoot 2-of-18 from three and lose in the second round to Michigan. Tennessee has never made the Final Four in program history, and that streak—unfortunately—may continue this year.
