Zakai Zeigler eager to finish his March Madness tenure getting the Vols to their 1st Final Four

Zakai Zeigler has one overriding goal for his final season with the Tennessee Volunteers, and that is making sure they accomplish something this program has never done.

Reach their first Final Four.

The Volunteers (27-7) have a lengthy NCAA Tournament history with this their 27th berth. They went five weeks during the regular season as the No. 1 team in the country and reached their fourth Southeastern Conference Tournament final in seven seasons. Now sights are set on finishing a very good season the best way possible.

“Winning. Winning," Zeigler said. “We understand what is in front of us and what's in line. My last year? I want to go out with a bang.”

Zeigler has been through so much on and off the court since arriving in Knoxville in August 2021. He is the SEC coaches’ two-time defensive player of the year and two-time all-SEC player who set the program record for assists in a single season during the SEC tourney. He now sits one from tying the school’s career mark at 715.

Yet, the 2022 SEC Tournament championship and 2024 SEC regular season title are the biggest trophies he has helped Tennessee win.

Tennessee was ousted in the second round of the 2022 tournament. Zeigler missed the run to the Sweet 16 in 2023 after tearing his left ACL late in the regular season, and the Vols fell as the No. 2 seed to Purdue in the Elite Eight last March.

Now a senior, he's the point guard who runs the show for coach Rick Barnes. The coach with 833 career victories said he has the utmost respect for Zeigler. Barnes knows Zeigler's body language so well and the point guard has his trust so much that the coach sometimes doesn't have to say anything at all.

Barnes only wishes he could bottle how Zeigler approaches each day.

“I love going to practice, but I don’t think I have to raise my voice very much with him because he’s a guy self-motivated, has got a tremendous drive to get better,” Barnes said. “What he's done in his career, I think he’ll leave here as one of the all-time great Tennessee Volunteers and really a guy that has impacted college basketball the past four years.”

The guard from New York, has stuck around Tennessee thanks to seeing just how fans support their Volunteers personally. During his freshman season, his mother Charmane lost everything when their apartment building in Queens burned Feb. 26, 2022. University officials helped arrange a GoFundMe with fans blowing past the $50,000 goal and raising $363,027 in less than a day before being closed.

His mother, who also takes care of a special needs nephew, moved to Knoxville that summer. Zeigler said then that they were “absolutely blown away” by the outpouring of support.

Zeigler kept working. At 5-foot-9, he is the shortest Volunteer on scholarship since 5-7 Ralph Parton in 1979-80. Zeigler's defensive skills and ability to find teammates is helped by his long armspan. He added 24 pounds and now has a standing vertical jump that has improved 4.23 inches since getting to Knoxville.

“I know he’s been an inspiration for a lot of small guards,” Barnes said. “I mean there’s lot of guards out there, small guys, that contact us because they see what he’s done and know we believe in guys like that.”

Opposing coaches know these Vols go as Zeigler goes. Alabama failed to take advantage of Zeigler being on the bench with two fouls for 10 minutes of the first half of a buzzer-beating loss March 1. Alabama coach Nate Oats said of Zeigler: “He’s the only guy that really creates a lot of offense for them.”

Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington saw Zeigler score 22 points rallying Tennessee to a win Feb. 15. Nothing his Commodores could do stopped Zeigler from controlling both the game and the pace of play.

“He's great in space,” Byington said. “He’s great in decision-making, and we tried multiple things to be able stop him. And we couldn’t come up with it."

Zeigler also need only glance at his mother in the stands to see how he's doing in games. She's always encouraged him to play mad, especially when her son isn't playing his best. Zeigler knows that means to step up his emotions, play more aggressively and cover his approach with a smile.

Now the No. 2 seeded Vols start their final NCAA Tournament run with Zeigler on Thursday night against 15th-seeded Wofford in Lexington, Kentucky, in the Midwest Region.

“We know what’s at stake,” Zeigler said.

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Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler (5) celebrates after a basket against Auburn during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jacob Misiorowski has been reaching new milestones for velocity just about every time he pitches, which might explain the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander's lack of surprise over his latest achievement.

Misiorowski threw 57 pitches at least 100 mph — the most by any individual in a game since pitch tracking began in 2008 — while getting 12 strikeouts to match his career high Monday in a 5-1 win against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“That's what I do,” Misiorowski said. “I throw hard.”

The previous record for 100 mph pitches in a game was 47 by Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene against St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2022.

Misiorowski reached 101 mph on 40 of his 96 pitches. He got to 102 mph on 22 pitches and had nine of at least 103. His top velocity was 103.4 mph, which he reached three times.

Nine of his strikeouts came on pitches that reached 100 mph, tying the record Greene set in that 2022 game against the Cardinals.

Misiorowski (5-2) allowed two hits and one walk in seven innings while improving his ERA to 1.83.

“Magnificent,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “One of the best performances I've seen in a long time.”

Yet it wasn't much different from all of the 24-year-old's other recent efforts.

In five starts this month, Misiorowski has allowed just one run and 11 hits while striking out 49 and walking six over 31 1/3 innings. When the Cardinals scored their lone run in the sixth, it snapped Misiorowski's streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 29 1/3.

That represented the third-longest streak of shutout innings in Brewers history. Teddy Higuera had 32 straight scoreless innings in 1987 and Freddy Peralta had 30 last year.

Misiorowski hasn't allowed an extra-base hit in six straight starts since giving up a double to Miami's Kyle Stowers on April 19.

“For him, I think the biggest thing is throwing strikes, and he's doing that,” Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn said. “That fastball's probably the best in the game. It's awesome to watch.”

Indeed, Misiorowski's control is one of the biggest ways in which he has improved since going 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA as a rookie last season.

Misiorowski had 87 strikeouts and 31 walks in 66 innings last year. This season, he's walked 19 in 64 innings while getting a major league-leading 100 strikeouts.

He started Monday's game by walking JJ Wetherholt on a 3-2 pitch inside before retiring the next 15 batters he faced. The Cardinals didn't get a hit until Pedro Pagés delivered a bloop single to lead off the sixth.

Misiorowski ended up allowing a run in the sixth, then came back out in the seventh and retired the side in order. He ended his day with a strikeout of Masyn Winn in which six of the seven pitches he threw exceeded 100 mph.

“It was just one of those things you go in the dugout, they tell you the inning before, ‘Hey, this is it. Go get it,’” Misiorowski said. “And kind of trust that the bullpen's going to have your back behind you.”

Misiorowski also has greater endurance from the conditioning work he did in the offseason. Murphy noted that it's about more than just arm strength.

“You can tell all those young pitchers out there, you have to have a lower half,” Murphy said. “He’s put together a great lower half.”

Misiorowski said working on his lower half was a focus in the offseason. The results are apparent in the way he's working deeper into games while maintaining his status as the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in the majors.

According to MLB.com, Misiorowski has thrown 22 career pitches of at least 103 mph as a starter, including in the postseason. No other starting pitcher has thrown more than two pitches 103 mph or faster during the pitch-tracking era.

No wonder Misiorowski said he wasn't taken aback Monday when each of his first six pitches went at least 103 mph.

“I feel like that’s how it should be every day," Misiorowski said. “I feel like that’s where I’m at. I feel like that’s just my normal.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Monday, May 25, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Monday, May 25, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)