The Tennessee Volunteers have experienced some memorable basketball departures in recent years, most notably sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson after the 2021-22 season and fifth-year senior guards Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi last March.
Now it truly feels like the end of an era with four-year guards Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler having played for the final time in Sunday’s 69-50 loss to Houston in the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Mashack set a program record by competing in nine NCAA tournament victories, while the 5-foot-9 Zeigler established Tennessee career records with 747 assists and 251 steals and also set a new Southeastern Conference single-season assist mark with 275.
“When we look back, I think they will be the two most accomplished Tennessee Volunteer players ever,” coach Rick Barnes said in a news conference after Tennessee’s 30-8 season came to a close. “We owe it to them to continue with the standard they have set, or even take it to another level. Our goal, like every team, would be to get back here and move forward.”
The four seasons of Mashack, a Californian, and Zeigler, a New Yorker, have coincided with the best four-year stretch in Tennessee history, as the Vols racked up a 109-36 record and won the 2022 SEC tournament title and the 2024 SEC regular-season championship. This season’s team didn’t win either, but the Vols began 2025 ranked No. 1 and stayed among the top five or six teams.
Mashack and Zeigler were so dominant defensively this season that they comprise two of the four finalists for the Naismith defensive player of the year, yet Mashack also provided one of the greatest offensive moments in Tennessee lore with his 32-footer at the buzzer March 1 to defeat Alabama 79-76 inside the Food City Center.