Zakai Zeigler has been tabbed to the Preseason All-SEC Team.

The Tennessee veteran guard made the First Team as voted on by the media, the league announced Monday.

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Zeigler, who was the only Vols' player to make any of the three teams, averaged 11.8 points, 6.1 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game during Tennessee's run to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight last season.

A First Team All-SEC selection an SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2023-24, Zeigler has been a Preseason All-SEC choice by the media for three-straight seasons, becoming the fourth player in program history to be a three-time selection.

He joins former players Allan Houston (1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93), Tony Harris (1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01) and Tyler Smith (2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10).

"(Zeigler) is wanting to have a great year and not just individually, but one thing that defines him is he's want to win," Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. "And, I think he's done a really good job again with Jahmai (Mashack) and Jordan (Gainey) trying to get the younger players and the new guys to understand we've got some big holes to fill and we need those guys to play at an extremely high level."

Former Tennessee forward Jonas Aidoo, who transferred to Arkansas after last season, made the Second Team. Alabama guard Mark Sears was picked as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year.

Tennessee was picked to finish third in the SEC according to vote by media members.

The Vols trail No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Auburn in the poll and finished ahead of No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 6 Florida, No. 7 Texas, No. 8 Kentucky, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 Mississippi State, No. 11 South Carolina, No. 12 Georgia, No. 13 Missouri, No. 14 LSU, No. 15 Oklahoma and No. 16 Vanderbilt.

It is the third-straight season that Tennessee has been a top 3 selection. The Vols were picked first in 2023-24 before making their run to the conference championship for the first time since 2018.

Tennessee is set to return Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashak, Jordan Gainey, J.P. Estrella and Cam Carr, in addition to having one of the best transfer portal classes in college basketball in Chaz Lanier (North Florida), Felix Okpara (Ohio State) and IgorMilicic Jr. (Charlotte).

"I guess I would say (we've grown) in versatility, maybe that we know we got different ways we can play with different lineups, big, small, somewhere in between, too," Barnes said. "But, still trying to figure out what is the best way to go for the most part, but just really waiting to get everybody on the court together at the same time. But overall, in fact, I think we've got really good, terrific camaraderie within our team and we got a group of guys that you can tell they continue to wanna get better and everything that we're trying to do.

"And so the attitude has been been good but I do know they know after each scrimmage that we've gone out that we've got to continue to get better and we have gotten better from scrimmage to scrimmage but we still, like everybody, we have a way to go.

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