NEW YORK – Everything Rick Barnes said after No. 1 Tennessee’s 75-62 victory over Miami in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden:

On Zakai Zeigler

“I wouldn’t trade it for anyone. I remember seeing him during the last week of summer evaluation when he was a senior. And he had a great week at Peach Jam. And we thought when Kennedy Chandler came in, we thought maybe we’d do something we hadn’t really done, try to get a point guard that we could redshirt. And he had a great week and he came in and I can tell you, after a week we thought we should give Kennedy a red shirt. And I’ll tell you that Kennedy would tell you that Zakai was probably one of the greatest things that ever happened to him.

“Zakai, he was incredible. His DNA and the way he has impacted our program is unlike many players ever can. And I’m just glad we can bring him back here to New York for his senior year. because I know he knows what The Garden is about. He knows that it is a stage and not a court. And it’s really special for him to bring him back here.”

Zakai Zeigler has remained with Tennessee for the past four years

“He’s as loyal as any person I’ve ever been with. I don’t know if there is a more beloved volunteer than him. When his family lost everything they owned to fire in about 30 hours up here a few years ago, Vol Nation raised $350,000 and could have done more, but the NCAA shut it down. He never forgot that. And he is loved. Everyone knows when they go to ChickFil-A every night. They know all that. But his career and what he has done for this program is truly unmatched.”

What went well when Tennessee extended its lead to 18 points then went wrong: Miami cut the lead to seven

“They are 37th in offensive efficiency. We knew they could shoot it. They shot the ball a little better than before. But give them credit for it. They are doing well on offense. But I don’t think we paid attention to details at the start of the game. We went with a smaller lineup for the last eight minutes of the (first) half. We started doing what we normally do and took the lead. And if you take the lead and start getting lazy, losing the ball and taking quick shots, the game can quickly slip away from you. But one thing is good: So far we haven’t been in a situation where we had to react. They reduced it to seven. And one good thing in the latter part of the second half is that we responded from a run, which is obviously something we need to do to be able to do a lot more. But also give them credit. They started taking some shots. We failed a few times when switching defensively, we can’t let that happen. We can’t. We weren’t as good as we needed to be defensively, but again, it’s tough to guard them.”

Tennessee takes over the No. 1 ranking this week

“We talked about it last night. I said, hey, you should take it. We didn’t say at the start of the season where we would end up. And we got promoted because the teams in front of us lost. We’re rising. We lose, someone will move here and so on. But I said while you’re there, you have a chance to play as the No. 1 team in the country tonight and we should take advantage of it. And if you accept it, look forward to the challenge that lies ahead. Because in college basketball, everyone works for the NCAA tournament, everyone builds resumes. But if we are who we think we are and who we want to be, you accept that. You say we expect your best. They will give it to us. We’ll get it in Illinois this weekend. Once again, I thought Miami played really well.

“It is what it is. But as Z says, we have year-end goals, but you can learn from them. I was really pleased with the fact that what he said, you guys were at practice, you saw it. We carried on as usual and prepared in the same way. We expect players to raise their level of play, which means we have to do that, and that’s a good thing. We always believe that iron sharpens iron. And we know that we are playing in the best league in the country and will take part in a lot of games. We’re so close. That’s why it’s important to learn how to deal with outside distractions. And the fact that we – no one has higher expectations of us than we do. I mean, we have the best fans in the country and a ranking and everything, but we want to play perfect and they know that. We try to practice like this every day and it’s hard, but they go about their business. We only had eight scholarship players left tonight. I thought early on the pace helped us a lot and then got a little sloppy. But I thought they handled it all well.”

If Tennessee made a concerted effort in the final eight minutes to get Chaz Lanier more involved

“Chaz needs to get involved. I mean, we’ll do some things for him. He has to work with more force, but if he gives up the ball he can no longer stand. He needs to learn to shield and move without the ball, and it’s up to him to do it. Because we’ve been talking about it for six, seven months now. We’re happy about him because we believe he can get a lot better. One thing I know: his teammates are looking for it. If he just stands where a man can practically shadow him, they won’t be able to reach the window to get it to him. So it’s a question of his understanding, but in his defense, this is all new to him. I mean, he’s never dealt with what he’s dealing with and you have to give him an A for what he’s done so far. But for him to get where I know he wants to go, if he does what I think he’s going to do, he’s going to keep pushing his game, and that’s what he’s going to have to do because people are going to see him Don’t just stand there and catch and shoot the ball.”

How he can give someone an A+ grade but then also say they need to do so much more

“Because I don’t think he had any idea what he was getting into. That’s not the case because he was where he was and he played for a great program in North Florida and then he came here and experienced some of the nights that he had and the way he game plans with different people – I mean, different size guys. I’m sure he’s played against longer players than ever before in our nine games here. He also did – I don’t know how people protected him so much at that level, but dealing with him, (Jahmai) Mashack is like that every day in practice because we say that’s how you’re protected . And that’s difficult because, firstly, he’s very selfless. He’s a really selfless guy. I can tell Z is looking for him a lot, just like Z and Cade (Phillips) have learned to look for each other on those lobs, and there’s just something exciting about it because he can get so much better.”

Zakai Zeigler

His trip to Tennessee

“It has been a tough journey but no matter what happens, my mother always told me to be a fighter and never give up. And everything is part of God’s plan. So despite all the ups and downs in life, no matter what happens, I’m just grateful to be in the position I’m in today.”

Tennessee is No. 1 in defensive efficiency, has won all nine games by double digits and is executing its game plans

“Exactly the work we do every day. Every day we come with the mindset of getting better. And even though we finished No. 1 nationally, to be honest, you come into the locker room and you wouldn’t have thought that. Everyone came in. We had a little grin on our faces. We were happy about it, but we know the end goal. But I just want to say that we take the work we do every day very seriously. We take practice very seriously. Take our individual (work) very seriously, strength training, everything. So I would just say we really put in a lot of work every day.”

They say Tennessee had a grin on their faces when they saw they were ranked No. 1, if it was a satisfied grin

“Honestly, we just noticed that the bullseye on our back has gotten bigger. Through the work we put in every day, we want everyone to do their best and play their best game against us. So once we knew we were number one, now we’re really going to get the best out of everyone. You know, we don’t dodge smoke, we don’t dodge competition, and we do that every day. We go about it every day as if we didn’t know each other in practice. So as soon as we see the number one ranking, we’re like, “Oh yeah, it’s really getting started.” And we know we still have a long way to go. We know there are places where we can get better and improve. It’s nothing to get too upset about.”

What it meant to him to play at Madison Square Garden after the last time he was here was as a sophomore when he was a few weeks away from a torn ACL

“I remember the game and it was quite hard to watch, to be honest. You know, I’m a sore loser if I’m honest. But, you know, the opportunity to come back here and finally get a win; My first year we didn’t get a win here, my second year we didn’t get a win here, so I was able to come back here and get a win in front of a lot of friends from my hometown, family, you know, grandma’s here, some People who maybe haven’t been able to see my teammates play since high school. Honestly, being able to get the win today and seeing everyone out there was really meaningful for me. But you know, looking back to my second year, just standing on the sidelines watching, I definitely had some memories, especially just walking onto the court, I remember my head the last time here was rolling around on a scooter. Just being able to walk down that hallway, warming up, every moment out there just meant something to me.”