KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Two University of Tennessee men’s basketball standouts, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler, are National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) First Team All-Central District designees, as announced Tuesday morning.
For the first time, the NABC named two 10-man teams across eight districts, as determined by geography. It previously produced two five-man teams across 23 districts, as determined by conference alignment.
The awards are voted on by coaches from within their respective districts. The Volunteers’ regional area includes the 36 Division I schools across six states: Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee.
This is the third consecutive year two Volunteers have earned NABC All-District status, with Zeigler featured in both 2022-23 (Second Team All-District 20) and 2024-25.
Tennessee is the only school with two NABC First Team All-Central District honorees. Only four others—Creighton, Iowa State, Kentucky and Missouri—even have multiple selections across the two teams.
Lanier and Zeigler formed the only teammate duo named The Sporting News All-Americans, with both collecting third-team plaudits. They also form the only teammate pair on the Wooden Award Top 15 National Ballot.
A 6-foot-5, 207-pounder, Lanier is averaging 17.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game in his first and only season as a Volunteer. He is shooting 40.0 percent from 3-point range on 8.09 attempts per game.
Lanier, a finalist for the Jerry West Award, is the 16th player—25th occurrence—in program history to reach 600 points in a single season. The fifth-year guard from Nashville, Tenn., has double-digit points in 32 of his 34 outings, with 21-plus in 13 of them.
A 5-foot-9, 172-pounder out of Long Island, N.Y., Zeigler is averaging 13.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game in his fourth and final campaign at Tennessee. He earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC status for the second straight season.
Zeigler, a Bob Cousy Award finalist, has 242 assists this year, good for the program single-season record and the third-most in a campaign in SEC history. The senior guard earned SEC All-Tournament plaudits after averaging 20.7 points, an event-best 6.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game to help the Volunteers reach the title game.
Lanier, Zeigler and sixth-ranked Tennessee (27-7, 12-6 SEC) begin play Wednesday at 6:50 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament as the second seed in the Midwest Region and will take on No. 15-seeded Wofford at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., live on TNT.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
2024-25 NABC ALL-CENTRAL DISTRICT
FIRST TEAM
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
P.J. Haggerty, Memphis
Chucky Hepburn, Louisville
Curtis Jones, Iowa State
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton
Chaz Lanier, Tennessee
Otega Oweh, Kentucky
Bennett Stirtz, Drake
Brice Williams, Nebraska
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
SECOND TEAM
Steven Ashworth, Creighton
Tamar Bates, Missouri
Lamont Butler, Kentucky
Jason Edwards, Vanderbilt
Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State
Caleb Grill, Missouri
Mark Mitchell, Missouri
David N’Guessan, Kansas State
Jacob Ognacevic, Lipscomb
Amari Williams, Kentucky
Coach of the Year: Dennis Gates, Missouri
