Mashack, Zeigler Among 15 on Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List

January 15, 2025 – Guard Jahmai Mashack #15 and Guard Zakai Zeigler #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers at Food City Center in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee AthleticsAndrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics

Mashack, Zeigler Among 15 on Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List

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Men’s Basketball

February 05, 2025

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Two members of the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team are selections for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List, as announced Wednesday afternoon by Atlanta Tipoff Club/Naismith Awards.

Senior guards Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler both made the elite 15-player list, giving Tennessee the lone teammate duo among the designees. Six of the 15 honorees hail from the SEC.

Mashack, per College Basketball Reference, leads the country in Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) with an 8.4 mark, which is 0.6 better than second place. Meanwhile, his career 6.56 DBPM is the fifth-best among all Division I players (min. 50 games) over the last 15 seasons (2010-25).

The 6-foot-4, 202-pounder is eighth nationally with an 88.9 defensive rating and No. 16 with 1.8 defensive win shares. He is averaging 2.0 steals per game and has notched multiple takeaways in 13 of 22 outings this year, including three-plus in seven and four-plus in four.

Meanwhile, this is Zeigler’s third year in a row as a Watch List choice, with Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner the only other player who has achieved that feat. Just four additional competitors—Penn State’s Ace Baldwin Jr., Auburn’s Johni Broome, Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey and Alabama’s Clifford Omoruyi—even earned the distinction in just 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Zeigler, who went on to garner semifinalist status each of the past two seasons, is averaging 2.1 steals per game in 2024-25 and has multiple steals in 13 of 21 appearances, with three-plus in six, four-plus in four and five-plus in two. The 5-foot-9, 172-pounder is the all-time steals leader in Tennessee history and his 228 takeaways rank No. 11 among active Division I players.

Ten Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalists will be revealed near the end of the regular season, with four finalists then announced during the NCAA Tournament.

Mashack, Zeigler and fourth-ranked Tennessee (18-4, 5-4 SEC) resume action Wednesday at 7 p.m. when they host No. 15/16 Missouri, live on SEC Network from Food City Center.

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.

NAISMITH DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST

Ace Baldwin Jr., Penn State

Johni Broome, Auburn

Lamont Butler, Kentucky

Cooper Flagg, Duke

Hayden Gray, UC San Diego

Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton

Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State

Jahmai Mashack, Tennessee

Cameron Matthews, Mississippi State

Stevie Mitchell, Marquette

Clifford Omoruyi, Alabama

Jayden Quaintance, Arizona State

Kadary Richmond, St. John’s

Joseph Tugler, Houston