The Wooden Award released its top 15 national ballet over the weekend at the conclusion of the regular season and two Tennessee basketball players landed on the ballot.
Tennessee’s backcourt duo of Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier both landed on the top 15 list. The Vols were the only team with multiple players on the ballot.
Zeigler enters the postseason averaging 13.1 points, 7.5 assists, three rebounds and 1.9 steals per game. The senior point guard was even better in SEC play, shooting better from three-point range and scoring at a higher-clip while his assist numbers remained high.
Tennessee’s senior point guard has already earned a number of honors for his play during the 2024-25 season. The SEC’s coaches voted him as First Team All-Conference selection a season ago and as the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.
EvanMiya‘s Baynesian Performance Ranking has Zeigler as the nation’s 10th most impactful player due to his ability to affect the game on both ends of the court.
Lanier spent just one season at Tennessee after transferring in from North Florida this offseason. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard is averaging a team-best 17.9 points on 40.5% shooting from three-point range. He added 3.9 rebounds per game this season and has totaled four-plus rebounds in his last 11 games.
The shooting guard was a Second Team All-SEC selection and the winner of the inaugural SEC Newcomer of the Year Award.
The Wooden Award will cut down its list to five players before announcing a winner Final Four weekend. Dalton Knecht was one of the five finalists for the award when Purdue’s Zach Edey won the award.
Tennessee basketball opens up postseason play later this week at the SEC Tournament in Nashville. The Vols earned a double-bye to the quarterfinals where they’ll face one of Texas, Vanderbilt or Texas A&M.
Check out the full Wooden Award Top 15 ballot below.
More From RTI: Tennessee Basketball’s Zakai Zeigler Repeats As SEC Defensive Player of the Year
Johni Broome, Auburn
Walter Clayton Jr., Florida
L.J. Cryer, Houston
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Eric Dixon, Villanova
Cooper Flagg, Duke
P.J. Haggerty, Memphis
Dylan Harper, Rutgers
Kam Jones, Marquette
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
Mark Sears, Alabama
Braden Smith, Purdue
John Tonje, Wisconsin
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
