Whenever they write the book on Rick Barnes, with or without a national championship, it won’t be complete without Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler. These two deserve as much attention as T.J. Ford, Kevin Durant and Grant Williams. They may be the reason the Tennessee Basketball head coach didn’t retire sooner.
Barnes’ calling cards his whole career have been developing players who want to be developed, a willingness to hustle every single play no matter what and elite defense. Nobody better represents those three things at the college level than Mashack and Zeigler.
Although six seniors were honored as Tennessee Basketball beat the South Carolina Gamecocks to close out the regular season last Saturday, only two were scholarship players who spent their whole career with UT: Mashack and Zeigler. They fit Barnes’ development story perfect.
Both were members of the Vols’ 2021 recruiting class that included headliners Kennedy Chandler, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Jonas Aidoo. Zeigler was actually a late signee everybody forgot about who had to reclassify into that class.
Somehow, though, with Chandler, the star recruit on the roster, Zeigler became the fan favorite over him at point guard immediately. His willingness to play way bigger than his size indicated, combined with having his family home burned down in a fire while he was playing, resonated.
Zeigler had to fight through that and then a season-ending injury at the end of his sophomore year before returning to become the full-time starting point guard for the Vols in 2023. All he did was earn SEC Defensive Player of the Year and lead the Vols to the SEC Regular Season title and only their second Elite Eight in school history.
As a senior, he led the Vols to a No. 1 ranking for the longest stretch in school history and only the third season. He also just wrapped up the second straight regular season in which he led the SEC in assists. Unselfish play, development, defense and overcoming odds? Sounds like a Barnes guy to me.
Mashack, meanwhile, was a true development project. Despite being a four-star recruit, he only played four and a half minutes a game as a freshman. NIL and then the transfer portal kicked into high gear, and that limited action didn’t stop him from leaving. He chose to get better under Barnes.
Over the next two years, Mashack became a role player, averaging between 17 and 18 minutes a game, but providing a valuable defensive spark off the bench and helping UT reach the same heights that Zeigler was helping them get to. Amidst a mass exodus this past offseason, Mashack stayed.
He was rewarded by staying in as a starter despite significant offensive struggles early in SEC play. Barnes loved his commitment, development and defensive prowess, as he averaged over one and a half steals a game. Over time, he became more reliable offensively too and is truly a threat at both ends.
This year’s Tennessee Basketball team will rely on Chaz Lanier, Igor Milicic Jr. and Jordan Gainey for its primary scoring. Felix Okpara will be the scrapper in the post. Mashack and Zeigler, however, will be the perimeter defensive specialists and the glue guys, particularly Zeigler.
Both players represent everything right about college basketball in an era when everything seems to be going wrong as it adjusts to the new age. They may not have NBA careers after this, but they are truly Vols for Life, and that has to mean something.
