Tennessee's Zakai Ziegler repeats as SEC defensive player of the year. The Vols are heading into the SEC tournament as the number four seed and have intentions to be crowned as conference champions by the end of the tournament.

UT's Zeigler named SEC Defensive Player of the Year again, with Lanier as SEC Newcomer and Mashack on All-Defensive Team.

Tennessee basketball is in Year 3 of a rebuild under Rick Barnes following the NBA departures of Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone. The Vols are facing North Carolina, a Tar Heels squad that will fall just short of a national title to Kansas in a little over 4 months.

Zakai Zeigler was named to the All-SEC first team and SEC defensive player of the year for the second straight season. Chaz Lanier was named as the SEC newcomer of the year and was on the All-SEC second team.

The most notable of those is Zakai Zeigler repeating as SEC Defensive Player of the Year. He also received First Team All-SEC and SEC All-Defensive Team status. Ziegler is the first player in conference history to collect four SEC All-Defensive Team distinctions, while only three others have collected three.

Three members of the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team collected All-SEC honors from the league’s head coaches, as announced Monday afternoon by the conference office. For the second consecutive season,

Beloved Tennessee basketball guard Zakai Zeigler wrote his name into the Southeastern Conference history books on Monday after another stellar defensive campaign.