Is Zakai Zeigler One Of The Five Best Players In College Basketball?

Image: University of Tennessee Athletics

By Cody McClure

Evan Miyakawa is a college basketball analyst who specializes in statistics and data. He’s been featured by ESPN, CBS Sports, and Sports Illustrated.

Today he released a list of the best 25 college basketball players in terms of statistical output per possession.

This “estimates a player’s value purely from individual stats in the 2024-25 season, adjusted for opponent strength.”

Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler ranks No. 5 on the list of these elite players.

The guys ahead of him? Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara from Auburn, Braden Smith from Purdue, and Cooper Flagg from Duke.

That’s basically a who’s who list of college basketball’s best players. National Player of the Year candidates.

It’s yet another metric that emphasizes just how important Zeigler is to Tennessee’s success. He’s truly one of the best players in America.

Here’s a full list of the top 25 players in college basketball based on statistical output per possession:

Here are the players with the best statistical output this year, adjusted for opponent strength faced, according to Box BPR at https://t.co/cegyfz96ax.

The top three by a good margin: Johni Broome, Braden Smith, and Cooper Flagg 👇 pic.twitter.com/58yEwlaCNp

— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) February 18, 2025