Zakai Zeigler’s Hometown

Zakai Zeigler is a point guard who plays for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's Tennessee Volunteers. Zeigler graduated from Our Savior Lutheran School in 2021. He was a three-star recruit who declined basketball scholarship offers from Wisconsin State, Minnesota, and Boston College to opt for the University of Tennessee. He was named for the 2022 SEC-All-Frenchman Team. In his junior season, he was named to the First Team All-SEC and won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year title. He has also reached the semifinals of the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award twice. In the end, he averaged 11.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game.

Zeigler, the two-time SEC assists leader, is one of four players on the defensive team to be chosen three times as an All-SEC player in league history from 2022 to 2024. He was selected to the 2024 NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament Team after leading the Volunteers to the Elite Eight. He also maintains the Tennessee record for career assists in the NCAA Tournament (38). As per the Tennessee Volunteers website, he was one of just four SEC players to make the 2025 Blue Ribbon Yearbook cut, along with Wade Taylor IV of Texas A&M, Mark Sears of Alabama, and Johni Broome of Auburn.

Where is Zakai Zeigler from?

Zakai Zeigler is from Bronx, New York, U.S. He completed his education at Our Saviour Lutheran School. He attended Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair, New Jersey, for the bulk of 2020–21, where he played basketball and averaged 20.0 points and 4.6 assists per game as a senior.

During the 2021 Peach Jam, he put up a standout performance in six games, averaging 15.3 points and 5.5 assists per game, a 4.7 assists-to-turnover ratio, and 50% 3-point attempts. Zeigler scored 23 points on 7-for-8 shooting from 3-point range, three steals, three rebounds, and no turnovers against Team Final and became the eventual Peach Jam champion.

Zakai Zeigler’s Birthplace

Zakai Zeigler was born in Long Island, New York, in the U.S. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville website states that he was born to Charmane Zeigler. He also has a younger half-brother named Armoni, who plays basketball for the Saint Peters Peacocks.

Zakai Zeigler’s Nationality

Zakai Zeigler is an American National. He was born on August 2, 2002, in Long Island, but was raised in the Bronx, New York. He went to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2021. Towards the end of his freshman season, he shot 35% from three and averaged 8.8 points per game. Before his season was cut short due to an anterior cruciate ligament tear sustained during a game versus Arkansas, Zeigler averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 assists per game the following season. As he healed, his role grew over the season, and at the conclusion of the year, he was selected as the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2024.