The No.12 ranked Tennessee Volunteers faced off against the Arkansas Razorback on Tuesday in an SEC battle between two teams expected to be in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. However, Tennessee may be worse for wear after a devastating injury to starting point guard Zakai Zeigler early in the matchup.
Zeigler suffered the injury just two minutes into the game, appearing the tweak his left knee without any contact on the play, which is never a good sign.
He was down on the court for quite some time and eventually needed help to be taken back into the locker room by the Tennessee training staff.
You just hate to see this, hopefully it’s not bad for Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler, but he looked to be in some serious pain. pic.twitter.com/MyqxVb438u
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) March 1, 2023
The Volunteers were able to come away with a 75-57 victory over Arkansas. However, this injury could be a devastating one ahead of both the SEC Conference Tournament and the looming NCAA Tournament.
The college basketball world took notice of this awful injury and offered their well wishes to Ziegler on social media.
Man, I really hope that Zakai Ziegler’s injury isn’t what it looks like.
— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) March 1, 2023
Tennessee already struggling and now Zakai Zeigler down and in trainer’s room with a non-contact knee injury.
This would be a devastating loss for the tough and talented point guard and a Vols team that desperately needs Zeigler.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 1, 2023
The grimace from Zakai Zeigler as he was being helped off the court. Heart wrenching. #Vols
— Reece Van Haaften (@Reece_VH) March 1, 2023
Zakai Zeigler getting helped off the floor.
Obviously a potentially devastating turn of events for Tennessee's season.
Non-contact knee injury. Almost never good.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) March 1, 2023
Zakai Ziegler just went down with a knee injury in the Tennessee game and it looks really bad
Prayers for the kid…that really sucks as he is a heck of a player
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 1, 2023
Zakai Ziegler is one of the better stories in College Basketball. I hate this for him. Tennessee has faced a ton of injury issues this season and it just got even worse. Tough.
— Chad Withrow (@TheChadWithrow) March 1, 2023
There has been no official diagnosis for Zakai Zeigler at this point. However, longtime Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed the injury after the game and believes that it could be a serious injury considering how tough Zeigler is as a player.
“For him to stay down, he’s hurt,” said Barnes via Grant Ramey of On3 Sports on Twitter.
Rick Barnes on Zakai Zeigler: "For him to stay down, he's hurt."
— @GrantRamey (@GrantRamey) March 1, 2023
Ziegler has been perhaps the team’s most important player thus far this season. To this point, he is the team’s second-leading scorer and leads the team in assists and steals on the year.
They will face another tough SEC test on Saturday against the Auburn Tigers, and hopefully they receive a positive assessment of Zeigler’s injury in the meantime.
