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Zakai Zeigler sets Tennessee’s single-season assists record in SEC Tournament
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Zakai Zeigler will go down as a monumental figure in Tennessee basketball history, and he carved out a program record for himself in Friday’s SEC Tournament action vs. Texas.
Facing the Longhorns in Nashville, the Vols found themselves in a hard-fought contest, clinging to a 41-38 lead at halftime. Texas has since struggled to find its footing after halftime as Tennessee tries to pull away and advance to the semifinals.
In that game, Zeigler officially punched his name into the record books for the Vols with the single-season assists record. He entered the game with 224 assists, needing just 4 to eclipse Rodney Woods and the 227 assists he had during the 1974-75 season.
Zeigler delivered and was up to 6 assists on the game with 10 minutes left to play, bringing his season total to an even 230. He’s also in hot pursuit of the program’s all-time assists record held by Johnny Darden.
From 1975-79, Darden compiled 715 assists. With 6 assists (so far) vs. the Longhorns, Zeigler is now up to 702 career assists, needing just 14 to pass Darden. With a semifinal game on Saturday looking more and more likely — and March Madness still to come — Zeigler’s shot at the record is looking better and better.
Even before the end of Friday’s game vs. Texas, the Vols have the 6th-best Final Four odds in the entire country at +300 via DraftKings, so Zeigler has a great shot of playing deep into March and possibly April. Be sure to use the Tennessee betting apps to take advantage of those odds moving forward.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
