BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The reigning SEC champion Tennessee Volunteers continue to prepare for the upcoming 2024-25 men’s basketball campaign, traveling south to Birmingham’s Grand Bohemian Hotel Mountain Brook for the annual SEC Men’s Basketball Media Day Tuesday morning.
Tennessee will be represented by tenth-year head coach Rick Barnes, along with senior guards Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack.
The pair of veteran guards combine for 200 career games played for the Big Orange and over 4,100 minutes of action over the previous three seasons.
SEC Network will have full coverage throughout the day. Barnes will be at the main stage at 11 a.m. ET, followed by Zeigler and Mashack at 11:20 a.m. ET. The UT trio will be on the SEC Network set at 11:45 a.m. ET.
For Zeigler, the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year and a 2024-25 Preseason First Team All-SEC selection, it marks his second consecutive SEC Media Day appearance. A year ago, as a junior, Zeigler finished the year with the third-most assists (218) in a season in program history. He led the Vols in assists, steals and minutes, posting averages of 11.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 1.7 steals in 31.6 minutes per game.
In addition, he shot 34.4 percent from beyond the arc. The Long Island, N.Y., native led the SEC in assists per game for the second consecutive season, the 10th person ever to do so, and also paced the league in total assists.
Mashack, having been voted chair of the 2024-25 SEC Men’s Basketball Leadership Council—his third straight year as Tennessee’s representative in the group—was also appointed, for the second year in a row, to represent the SEC on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee’s (MBOC) Student-Athlete Engagement Group this year.
The Fontana, Calif., native shot 44.8 percent from the floor a year ago, adding 4.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 17.9 minutes per contest. He Led or co-led Tennessee in steals seven times, as well as in blocks six times. His next game played will be No. 100 for him in the orange and white.
Tennessee is coming off arguably the finest season in program history in 2023-24, having earned its sixth-ever outright SEC regular season title (11th total), second Elite Eight appearance and best finish in the AP and Coaches Polls (fifth).
The 27 victories last season tied for the fourth-most ever by the Volunteers, as did the 14 league triumphs, while the team’s seven AP top-25 wins tied a program record. For the third straight year, Tennessee spent the entire season ranked in the AP top 25, extending the program record to 59 straight weeks, good for the third-longest active streak in the country.
Tennessee checked in at No. 12 nationally in Monday’s preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll.
