Zakai Zeigler has had a phenomenal career here at Tennessee and now, 8 games into his senior season, he has a serious shot at four of Tennessee’s major records. All of these are counting the 23 remaining regular season games and NOT any SEC or NCAA tournament games which would make the numbers significantly easier to reach.

Career Assists:

715 - Johnny Darden

535 - Zakai Zeigler (3rd place)

Needs to average 7.8 a game to break the record in the remaining 23 regular season games (not considering SEC or NCAA tournaments.)

Currently average 7.9

Season Assists:

227 - Rodney Woods

55 - Zakai Zeigler

Needs to average 7.3 a game to break the record in regular season.

Career Steals

212 - Santiago Vescovi

199 - Zakai Zeigler (3rd place)

Needs to average .53 steals a game to break the record in regular season. Currently average: 2

Season steals

78 - LaMarcus Golden

13 - Zakai Zeigler

Needs to average 2.8 a game to break on regular season.

Currently his pace would set the first three records and he would need to increase his steals per game by nearly one whole steal to catch Golden’s season. He almost assuredly will be the career holder for steels if he plays every game though.

Rick Barnes <3

Box score.

Well this was fun. It’s weird seeing a Tennessee team just turn it on like they did in the second half. The depth at the 2 guard is looking really impressive. Happy for Cade Phillips emerging into a more prominent role. The only team from the SEC I wanted to win this challenge won, so that’s exciting. The real test will be if they can exercise their NYC demons and play well against Miami in the Garden on Tuesday. Here we go.

The Good:

• Chaz Lanier. In the first half he rebounded well for a guard. In the second half he decided to go absolutely nuclear. It’s really fun to watch. Also, he has way more bunnies than I thought he did? Am I alone on that? Either way, he was a sniper this evening.

• Cade Phillips. He was simply outstanding this evening. Broke their zone. Finished strong around the rim. Rebounded well. That double technical was bullshit. He’s going to need to play big minutes in conference play, and performances like this are really inspiring.

• Jordan Gainey. Went on a real bender in the second half after some first half struggles. Hit some threes. He’s done a nice job getting to the rim this year. Happy for him.

• ZZ. Shooting? Not so good. Facilitating? Very good. Love it when he’s making nice passes. The alley oops are a lot of fun to see (even if he forces them sometimes). He also should’ve had two more steals but for a shit whistle.

• Felix Okpara. A dude like Eddie Lampkin killed Tennessee last year. Okpara limited his low post moves and, more importantly, prevented him from facilitating the way he usually does. Also had some nice clean up points around the basket.

• 55% from the field is nice.

• Rebounding. Absolutely dominated the glass today.

• They broke the zone very easily, that’s fun.

• Points off of turnovers. It’s one thing to force them, it’s another to take advantage of it. And they took advantage of it.

• Walk on points!

• Alley-oops! They were a lot of fun!

The Average:

• 3pt shooting. You can nitpick me here and say 36% is good. I won’t put up much of an argument.

• Jahmai Mashack. Some bad turnovers. Some silly fouls, but his defense was strong and I thought he did a nice job trying to get to the basket.

• Igor Milicic. I actually don’t think he played that well at all despite the double-double. He had a lot of stupid fouls. He wasn’t as aggressive as I would have liked him to be on offense. But I expect more of him.

The Bad:

• Darlinstone Dubar. I want him to be good, but tonight wasn’t it. Turnover. Missed free throw. Looks a little slow rn.

• Bishop Boswell. Came in at the end of the half to play defense and not foul and he got fucking smoked. Didn’t do anything in garbage time to move him up from this section.

• Free throw shooting. Better than Syracuse but Syracuse was awful here. They gotta be better than 66%.

• Dave Pasch thinks the earth is 6,000 years old. What a moron.

Made me laugh!

Who we rooting for in the champ games and how would that specific team winning help the Vols? 12 team format still taking some getting used to.

Let me go on the record that Bama being in the CFP, having the EASIEST route to the NC, AND Ohio state only dropping 4 SPOTS after losing to UNRANKED MICHIGAN is ABSOLUTELY ABSURD!!!! I’m calling for the heads of the ENTIRE committee! How about we let the people vote since we are democracy???

I really want to go back and watch all 22 style footage of Tennessee and maybe their potential playoff opponent, but I can’t find any college football all 22 footage. Does anyone know where I can get access to some?

I can’t figure out how/why people aren’t higher on him. We could see his speed last year with Wright as the primary back and this year he’s been incredible. Apparently he was in track and runs a sub 4.4, at 5’11 and 200lbs.. not to mention all the tape of him spinning, jump cuts, patience, etc

So what gives?

This post isn't meant to hate on Dylan Sampson. He has obviously been amazing this year with 1,485 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns, and was absolutely snubbed of being a Doak Walker award finalist. He should also at least be in the conversation to go to New York as a Heisman finalist. But he does have 4 fumbles in the last 6 games, which is a little concerning, at least to me. How worried are you about his fumbling issue going into the playoffs?

Last game he had 2 points 3 boards in 11 minutes against the Illini. Completely lost his spot to Thiero. I just think it’s mildly amusing.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/101st-airborne-divison-u-s-army_airassault-activity-7266951630317670400-Chxd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Why is everyone so quick to want their coach fired? I know we saw a lot of it in the first 5 minutes of the vandy game and earlier this season. I'm also seeing a lot of it with Ohio State and firing Ryan Day. I get that everyone wants a coach that can win a national championship every year, but seriously, having a coach that can lead to 10-2, heck, even 8-4 or 9-3 on a regular basis is still incredibly impressive. In these days of NIL and the transfer portal, teams finishing with an undefeated record are going to become more and more rare. Am I happy with every single decision that coach Heupel has made over the last almost four years? No. Am I happy with what he has done with this program over the last almost four years? Absolutely! Heupel at his worst is better than any of the coaches we've had since Fulmer who left in 2008, that's 16 years ago and we all know how tough that stretch was.

Ryan Day has a 1-4 record against their rival Michigan, I get it, that's not fun, but he hasn't lost more than two games so far in a season overall. Heupel hasn't beaten Georgia (yet!) since he's been our coach. Be grateful for what we have, CJH is a great coach and it's great to be a Vols fan again! GBO!