{"id":86930,"date":"2025-03-30T17:29:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T22:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/zakai-zeiglers-message-to-rick-barnes-after-tennessees-elite-eight-loss-to-houston-im-sorry\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T17:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T22:29:54","slug":"zakai-zeiglers-message-to-rick-barnes-after-tennessees-elite-eight-loss-to-houston-im-sorry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/zakai-zeiglers-message-to-rick-barnes-after-tennessees-elite-eight-loss-to-houston-im-sorry\/","title":{"rendered":"Zakai Zeigler\u2019s message to Rick Barnes after Tennessee\u2019s Elite Eight loss to Houston: \u2018I\u2019m sorry\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014<\/strong> Zakai Zeigler<\/a><\/strong> left the court for the final time in a Tennessee Basketball<\/a> uniform Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, shook hands and hugged Rick Barnes<\/a><\/strong> and gave a message to his head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d the senior point guard said coming off the court, as No. 1 Houston was putting the finishing touches on the 69-50 win over No. 2 Tennessee<\/a> in the NCAA Tournament\u2019s Elite Eight<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zeigler\u2019s legendary career came to an end with five points, five assists assists and four turnovers in the loss, shooting just 1-for-9 from the floor and 1-for-6 from the 3-point line. <\/p>\n

But the last thing Barnes wanted to hear was an apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurt me because I knew how much he cared,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cHe said \u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 but he\u2019s got nothing to be sorry about. He gave us everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee (30-8), seeing its season end in the Elite Eight for a second straight year, trailed by as many as 22 points in the first half and could get no closer than 10 points after halftime.<\/p>\n

Jordan Gainey<\/a><\/strong> and Chaz Lanier<\/a><\/strong> scored 17 points each, but the Vols shot just 28.8% from the field and went 5-for-29 from the 3-point line, including an 0-for-14 start from three in the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI love these guys to death,\u201d Zeigler said. \u201cThey\u2019re people that changed my life and I just love these guys to death and I\u2019m just thankful that I was part of a team like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jahmai Mashack<\/a><\/strong> had four points, five rebounds and two steals in his final Tennessee game. Alongside Zeigler, the duo helped lead the Vols to four NCAA Tournament, three Sweet 16s and two Elite Eights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know those guys,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThey know I\u2019m an older guy. They know I would love to win a national championship, but they have absolutely not one thing to hang their head down or be sorry about because they had truly \u2014 we have a slogan at Tennessee, give your all for Tennessee. They did that. In more ways than you can imagine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless, whether we were down 20 or 25, they would continue to give their all for the University of Tennessee because they\u2019re such a huge part of where this program is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018All I did was ask Coach Barnes for a chance and he gave it to me\u2019<\/h2>\n

Zeigler leaves Tennessee as the SEC\u2019s single-season assist record holder with 275. He Tennessee\u2019s career record for assists (747), as well as the steals record (251).\u00a0<\/p>\n

He averaged 13.9 points, 7.5 assists and 2.9 rebounds over his 137-game career as arguably the most productive and decorated point guard in program history.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into Knoxville,\u201d Zeigler said, \u201cI didn\u2019t have any expectations for anything like that. All I did was ask Coach Barnes for a chance and he gave it to me. The mark that they left on me and my family, they changed our lives, really.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so thankful for each and every person that\u2019s a part of Vol Nation. I\u2019m so thankful for the coaches, so thankful for my teammates, so thankful for everybody that\u2019s part of Tennessee as a whole. I couldn\u2019t do anything like that without my teammates. I couldn\u2019t do anything like that without my coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zakai Zeigler signed with Tennessee as a three-star recruit in 2021<\/h2>\n

Zeigler was a three-star prospect discovered late in the 2021 recruiting cycle by Tennessee\u2019s coaching staff. He was offered a scholarship, visited the Vols and committed to Barnes in a span of three weeks in July 2021 and arrived on campus in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mashack was a four-star prospect that leaves as one of the best perimeter defenders in college basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Coach Barnes be the most consistent person,\u201d Mashack said. \u201c \u2026 He loves to coach me and he knows how much I put in this game. I really wanted to get there for him. I wanted people to realize how good of a coach he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to get there for him,\u201d Mashack added. \u201cI wanted to get there for the Vol fans, man. I wanted them to have something that they could be proud of. And it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s hard, but we\u2019re going to have to fight through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mashack and Zeigler, two of the four finalists for the national defensive player of the year award, leave as the two winnigest four-year players in Tennessee Basketball history, including nine NCAA Tournament wins and an SEC regular-season championship. They never played for a Tennessee team that was not ranked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mark that Tennessee has left on me is really crazy to just think about. It\u2019s been the best four years of my life,\u201d Zeigler said. \u201c\u2026 Changed my life. And I feel like Knoxville is a place I\u2019ll call home forever. So everything that I\u2019ve done there, everything that they\u2019ve done for me has been nothing less than great and I wouldn\u2019t even say ups and downs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has been up, really. Vol Nation, I love you guys and I appreciate everything they\u2019ve done for me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Zakai Zeigler\u2019s message to Rick Barnes after Tennessee\u2019s Elite Eight loss to Houston: \u2018I\u2019m sorry\u2019<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Zakai Zeigler left the court for the final time in a Tennessee Basketball…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}