Zakai Zeigler Says Vols, Not UK, Have Best Fans in the Nation

Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler will get a lot of attention from the UK defense again Friday night. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler didn’t want to say there was “extra pressure” on Tennessee in Friday night’s game against Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen. Instead, he sort of danced around Kentucky going for a third straight win over the Vols by praising Tennessee fans.

“You can’t really control if the ball goes in the basket or not, but you can control things like our defense and our effort,” said Ziegler. “So going out there and just doing what we do and just knowing that Vol Nation will have our back no matter what. We know they’re going to have our back and give us energy and whether they’re there in the stadium or whether they’re in the TV, we feel that energy no matter what.

“Vol Nation, we have the best fanbase in the country. Whether they’re there or not they’re going to bring the energy and they’re going to bring the fight to us. And whatever stadium we play in we know they’re going to feed the floor.

“I don’t feel any pressure. I know my teammates don’t really feel any pressure. We’ll just go out there and do what we do.”

Kentucky and Tennessee have never played against each other in the NCAA Tournament and now meet for a berth in Sunday’s Elite Eight.

“I feel like it’s one of the biggest rivalries in college basketball. It’s definitely fun going into Rupp. There’s a lot of emotion that goes into it,” Zeigler said. “This being the first time meeting in a place like this, especially for a moment like this, especially knowing how many seniors we’ve got on this team and going into the game, how the season went and the regular season playing against them, so it definitely is going to be a lot of fun going out there. And it’s definitely going to mean a lot to us but to all Vol Nation.”

Tennessee is favored by the Las Vegas oddsmakers and NCAA seedings to win this game. However, the Vols were favored in the two earlier games won by UK.

“We know we’re the best defense in the country. We didn’t show that either time that we played them. Offense is going to take care of itself. Coach Barnes lets us know that all the time,” Zeigler said.

“But just being ourselves on defense, going out there, showing that we’re the number one defense in the country and doing all the little things and everything, all the details that we are telling each other to do and sticking to the game plan, then we’ll be fine. But I don’t feel we did that in either game. We’ll make sure to do better this time.”