It wasn’t pretty — it was actually very ugly — but Tennessee got the job done on Saturday night against Texas. The Volunteers have plenty of experience winning games like this, thanks to their lights out defense.
The sparkplug of that defense? Zakai Zeigler.
The 5-foot-9 point guard’s effort on both ends of the floor is unmatched, but his work on the defensive end is what has made him special. The former diamond-in-the-rough prospect from New York was named the SEC’s defensive player of the year this season, which is quite the feat for such an undersized guard.