The Tennessee Volunteers are currently the No. 1 ranked men’s college basketball team in the country. Starting guard Zakai Zeigler, a senior, is a big part of that. Zeigler averages 11.8 points per game and ranks fourth in the country in assists per game.

But according to one message board poster, those numbers aren’t good enough for a particularly critical Vols cheerleader. Volquest user VolRiverRat shared a story recently of a cheerleader who was allegedly trash talking Zeigler in both a consistent and malicious fashion.

#Tennessee has a problem with one of its cheerleaders. #Narc pic.twitter.com/TDc4jgM9Wv

— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) December 27, 2024

“Weird story here, but I took the family to last week’s MTSU game,” the poster began. “A friend gave us some great seats right down on the floor. We were right next to UT’s cheer squad the majority of the game. After tip off, it quickly became obvious that one of our male cheerleaders has a real personal problem with Zakai.

The poster then proceeded to paint picture of the cheerleader routinely harassing Zeigler for mistakes, while his cohorts would make fun of him every time Zeigler did something well.

“He was basically talking sh-t to him all night, albeit in a very sarcastic way. Every time ZZ did something that wasn’t perfect it was; ‘good shot Zakai’ ‘nice turnover Zakai’ ‘way to be selfish Zakai.’

“There was no denying what I was hearing. Surely ZZ heard some of it as well. My nine year old son picked up on it. Every time ZZ did something good his other cheerleader buddies would give him a hard time. He didn’t stop yelling at him all game though.

“I found it very obnoxious to say the least, and incredibly inappropriate for a member of the cheer squad. I don’t want be a narc, but thought about emailing their cheer coach and asking her to have a conversation with this young man. I wanted to say something myself, but my wife talked me out of making a scene. This little douche seems like he needs a reckoning though.”

Who knows what really happened here? Maybe there was a misunderstanding. Maybe the interaction never happened at all. But its one of the weirder stories you’ll see all season.