NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Three days after calling Zakai Zeigler his “safety blanket”, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes kept his senior point guard on the bench with two fouls for the final seven minutes of the first half. The decision proved costly as sixth-ranked Tennessee fell to Vanderbilt 76-75 at Memorial Gymnasium.
Zeigler picked up his second foul with 7:10 remaining in the first half, over contesting and hitting the arm of Vanderbilt’s Jason Edwards on a three-point attempt.
“I thought Zakai’s 3-point foul was ridiculous, that he would put himself in that situation,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “I mean, he fouled. He can’t do that. I mean, you’re talking about two seniors (Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack) that, and I love him to death, we can’t foul three point shooters.”
Zeigler committing the foul was both ridiculous and ill advised but wasn’t nearly as costly as Barnes’ decision to bench him for the remainder of the first half.
Tennessee led 26-21 at the time of the foul and Zeigler had been the best player on the court through the game’s first 13 minutes. To that point, Zeigler had six points, six assists, a steal, zero turnovers and was in complete control.
Edwards hit all three free throws to cut Tennessee’s lead to two points and it jumpstarted to a 20-9 Vanderbilt run to end the first half. With Zeigler on the bench, the Vols’ offense struggled badly. They made just one field goal in the final 7:10 of the first half and turned the ball over three times while struggling to create open looks.
It was particularly bad in the immediate minutes following Zeigler’s departure which set up the under four timeout, when Tennessee trailed by three points, as an obvious time to go back to Zeigler. Did Barnes consider making the move?
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“No, because I mean, I thought we could stay there,” Barnes said. “If you think about it, it ended, what was the score at halftime? We were down six. It was a two-point game. … “We could have stayed right there with them. But again, it was just a simple defensive play that we didn’t handle. I mean, it was just no reason for it. And there was never a reason to foul a three.
“But no, we weren’t going to risk that (Zeigler with two fouls).”
After trailing by as many seven points in the first half, Tennessee had cut the deficit back to two points before a defensive breakdown led to a four-point play to end the first half.
And there’s no doubt that Tennessee didn’t lose the game exclusively because of offensive struggles with Zeigler sidelined. Its defense was not up to its standard for nearly the entirety of the game and the Vols had a pair of chances to force overtime in the game’s final seconds. But putting Zeigler on the bench is when the game flipped.
The decision feels all the worse in hindsight. Zeigler didn’t pick up his third foul until there was 38 seconds left in the game. Both of his second half fouls were intentional.
Not leaving players with two fouls in the game is a Barnes’ staple. According to KenPom, Tennessee’s starters play just 5.1% of the time when they have two fouls in the first half, a mark that ranks 337th nationally and is nearly 17% under the national average.
But Barnes has made exceptions to that rule and Tennessee’s two-foul participation rate has been up in recent years. Zeigler having two fouls in the second half is a time when Barnes should have made an exception. Just look at how Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington felt about it.
Barnes built his 10th Tennessee team around his senior point guard. The Vols’ roster is constructed to play to Zeigler’s strengths. On the road in SEC play, you have to trust your security blanket, the veteran that has been through the battles and you built your team around.
