Tennessee basketball is facing off with Alabama and one of the nation’s best teams on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville. It’s a matchup with major ramifications as both the Vols and Crimson Tide are competing for a one-seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
The top matchup on the court is between senior guards Zakai Zeigler and Mark Sears. Tennessee’s Zeigler is one of the nation’s best true point guards and enters Saturday’s showdown averaging 13.6 points, 7.6 assists and two steals per game.
Sears is more of a scoring first guard. He is averaging 19 points on 36% shooting from three-point range while dishing out five assists per game.
Ahead of the top 10 matchup, Zeigler met with the local media and discussed facing off against Sears, Tennessee needing to get off to quicker starts and much more. Here’s everything Zeigler said.
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On what they need to do to get off to faster starts
“I feel like we got to come out with more of an underdog mindset and I feel like in the first half we look a lot like, we’ll look too much into the scouting report I feel like. Listening to the game plan is important, but I feel like we’ll look too deep into the scouting report instead of going, all right, let’s just go out there. We going to follow the game plan, but we’re going to play and we going to just flow out there. But I feel like we definitely got to come out with more of an underdog mindset.”
On if they’re too tight to start games
“Nah, I wouldn’t say that, but I feel like we would be so locked in on doing everything right, doing everything like perfect instead of playing. Because, and this goes for anybody, even if you’re not doing anything with a scouting report, if you’re not just going out there playing, if you’re thinking about every little thing you do, you’re not going to be able to play. So I’ll just say going out there and playing more free from the jump rather than just thinking of every little detail we’re doing.”
On what’s motivating him this season
“Winning, *laugh* winning. You know, we understand what is in front of us and what’s in line. And you know, my last year I want to go out with a bang. It’s a lot of guys in the locker room, it’s their last years also, and we all want to go out with a bang, so that’s something that’s really driving us. Just being in practice, us being super competitive and we understand that we gotta get better and better, but we can’t get better if we don’t push ourselves. And the better we get, the easier it’s going to be once we get to the games. So I just feel like every game and every time we think of a game and we just get more and more excited and we know like what’s at stake and what’s in line.”
On if he gets excited to face veteran guard like Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor and Alabama’s Mark Sears
“I guess you could say that, but it’s definitely fun playing against some of the better guards, I guess you could say in the country. And not just the SEC but the country really. So it’s a lot of fun playing against the best of the best and I always say I don’t duck no smoke. So when guys coming here, it is a lot of fun.”
On what makes Mark Sears such a good scorer
“Yeah, well I feel like he doesn’t really have a conscience, you know, he knows he’s a good shooter and he might miss a couple shots, but you leave him open, it is going in. So he’s a really good scorer, really good all around player, so he should be a fun one playing against him.”
On what allows Alabama to put up such daunting offensive numbers
“Yeah, well they play a really fast pace. You might be up 15 on Alabama, but that’s more like a five point game. They’re fast paced, they like to go up and down just looking at the last couple games, like the scores that they’ve been having, even in some of the points that they’re giving up, like you could tell how fast pace— Missouri put up 110 and when they went in the Rupp, they put up a bunch of points. So, you know, that’s the fast pace that they play at is really easy for them to score baskets in the way they shoot a lot of threes, rim or three guys, so just their fast pace and the way they shoot the ball. It helps them a lot.”
On how much time he spends studying an elite guard like Mark Sears before a matchup
“Yeah, well I mean it is a lot. It’s a lot of details to go in, not just, maybe, one game but every single game. And at the end of the day, basketball, you got to guard somebody. Game plans change on day to day. You might guard somebody that maybe not be the best shooter. You might want to force him into jump shots or you might want to force him into layups or something else. But no, I understand that he’s a really good shooter. The game plan changes day by day really.”
On how they’ve slowed down Alabama’s offense the last two years
“Yeah, really I would just say going out there and being us, being dogs. Coming into the game, we know none of these games will be easy. If we be us though, you know, we be fast, physical and make them match our speed, not us match their speed. We know just playing and just being ourselves on both ends of the court, I feel like it’ll really help us.”
On how much Felix Okpara makes his life easier when he’s playing well
“Oh, it makes it a lot easier. I got my utmost confidence in Felix. He’s the best rim protector in the country. I feel like if I get beat, I know he got my back. And on the offensive end, I feel like he’s a really great big. You can put anybody at the rim, I know if I throw it in there, he gonna go get it. So I got the utmost confidence in him. But him playing at high level helps us out a ton.”
On if the shorter rotation helps them iron out roles easier
“Yeah definitely. I feel like it makes guys understand more rotations. Us having a shorter rotation, like you said, guys can play more free. You’re going to come in the game and out of the game, that’s just what it is, the rotation we have nine guys are going to play. Guys just playing more free and I don’t really think it hurts us because the way we practice, the way we prepare, the way our bodies prepare mentally for it as much as physically— I don’t really say it hurts us. It definitely helps us prepare.”
