Men’s BasketballOctober 28, 2024
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – University of Tennessee men’s basketball standout Zakai Zeigler is a member of the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Top 20 Preseason Watch List, as announced Monday afternoon by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
A 5-foot-9, 172-pound senior, Zeigler was a Midseason Top 10 List selection during his stellar 2023-24 campaign.
This year’s preseason list features six SEC players and 14 from the rest of the country combined. Zeigler is joined by Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr., Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard, Texas’ Jordan Pope, Alabama’s Mark Sears and Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV in the SEC group.
Three of those six players—Zeigler, Clayton and Sears—were among the five Preseason First Team All-SEC choices by the league’s media contingent.
Zeigler averaged 11.8 points, 6.1 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game in 2023-24, while shooting 34.4 percent on 3-pointers. He led the SEC in assists per game for the second year in a row, earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors and collected First Team All-SEC status from the league’s coaches. He was also one of 10 semifinalists for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.
Entering 2024-25, the Long Island, N.Y., native has earned multiple recognitions, including Preseason Second Team All-America accolades from Blue Ribbon Yearbook and Preseason Third Team All-America designation from ESPN’s Jay Bilas.
The Bob Cousy Award Midseason Top 10 List will be announced Feb. 3, with the finalists named March 3 and the winner revealed April 4 at the Final Four. Each round, including the initial preseason watch list, features fan voting, available beginning Nov. 1 at hoophallawards.com.
Additional information on the Naismith Starting 5—there is one honoree for each position—can be found at the same link. In 2023-24, Tennessee fifth-year guard Dalton Knecht, now with the Los Angeles Lakers, won the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
Bob Cousy Award Top 20 Preseason Watch List
Ace Baldwin Jr., Penn State
Markus Burton, Notre Dame
Elliot Cadeau, North Carolina
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Dajuan Harris, Kansas
Elijah Hawkins, Texas Tech
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Malik Mack, Georgetown
Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
Jordan Pope, Texas
Tyrese Proctor, Duke
Myles Rice, Indiana
Jeremy Roach, Baylor
Mark Sears, Alabama
Braden Smith, Purdue
Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
