Tennessee basketball's season ended on Sunday with a 50-69 Elite 8 loss to Houston. The Cougars were too much for the Vols in the first half, running up a 20-point lead at halftime, but Tennessee was unable to overcome the deficit.
After the game ended, Tennessee fans celebrated longtime Vols Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack for their hard work and dedication to the Tennessee basketball program.
That is rare in today's sports environment, where players are encouraged to transfer yearly. Zeigler and Mashack stayed in Knoxville their entire career and won the most postseason games of any Vol in program history.
Zeigler has been Tennessee's locker room leader for the past two seasons, and it has been obvious that his impact on the program and head coach Rick Barnes will go far beyond the 2024-25 season.
Despite Tennessee's success this year, including an SEC Tournament championship run and NCAA Tournament Elite 8 run, it wasn't as easy as it may have looked on the surface.
Zeigler shared the struggles this year's team went through and the challenges they faced to make an Elite 8 run this year.
"A lot of people don't realize what we've been through," Zeigler said postgame. "Guys transferring, people getting hurt, getting down to 7 scholarship guys. You don't realize how hard that is. I love these guys to death. They changed my life."
The Vols also lost some key players to the transfer portal last season, so Barnes and the coaching staff had to go into the portal and piece together the best roster they could, and they did a pretty good job.
Despite the strong roster Barnes and company created through the portal, it still wasn't easy for Tennessee.
They played with seven scholarship players this season, which creates a handicap for Tennessee at the start. That means the Vols played with half the number of scholarship players that are allowed.
That goes to show the effort and hard work Zeigler and the Vols put together this season to create an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Final Four.