Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler is the program’s new career assist leader. Zeigler’s second assist against Wofford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was the 716th of his career.
Johnny Darden previously held the Tennessee record, assisting on 715 baskets during his college career from 1975-79.
Zeigler’s second assist came just under three minutes into the game when he found Chaz Lanier and the shooting guard knocked down a triple on the right wing.
The senior point guard broke Tennessee’s single-season record just three games prior on his fourth assist in Tennessee’s SEC Tournament win over Texas at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
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Zeigler’s career record breaking assist was the 244th of his season. The 5-foot-9 point guard’s assist numbers have increasingly gone up during his four-year college career. Zeigler totaled just 93 as a freshman and jumped all the way up to 161 during his sophomore season before totaling 218 assists in his junior season.
The Long Island, New York’s 218 assists during the 2023-24 season is the third most in program history. Zeigler has two of Tennessee’s top three assist seasons with Robert Woods’ 227 assists during the 1974-75 season marking the second most in NCAA Tournament.
Zeigler enters the NCAA Tournament averaging 13.8 points, 7.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game. The veteran guard earned First Team All-SEC, Third Team All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors for his play during the regular season. He’s looking for even more in the NCAA Tournament.
Stay tuned for RockyTopInsider.com all night for complete coverage of Tenenssee basketball’s NCAA Tournament opener against Wofford.
