CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Brotherly love?
Not exactly.
Unless they’re playing against each other, Long Island’s half-brother Zakai Zeigler of Tennessee and St. Peter’s Square native Zakai Zeigler played in the NCAA Tournament opener Thursday at Spectrum Center. That won’t be the case if Armoni Zeigler is up against him.
On Wednesday, Zakai, the Vols’ point guard, provided comic relief when he sarcastically trashed his younger brother Armoni, a freshman with the 15th-seeded Peacocks.
Armoni had just finished telling reporters that Zakai had a 6-5 lead over him in a one-on-one battle when Zakai took the podium.
“Just to clear the air, he’s never beaten me one-on-one,” Zakai said. “He’s just not up to par in this series. And he’s not up to par in scoring. I think I’m a little bit better at everything he does, other than athleticism and height. He’s better than me. There are only two things about him: athleticism and height.
“Other than that, I can probably get about five good times.”
For comparison, Armoni is 6-foot-4, 185 pounds and averages 6.4 points per game, while Zakai is 5-9, 171 pounds and averages 11.9 points per game.
“I’m more athletic than him and he’s a midget. What’s with him, 5-7, 5-6?” Armoni joked.
Ironically, the two are enjoying this rare moment of competing as brothers in an NCAA Tournament game.
“When we were kids, we always dreamed of something like this, but we never thought it would come true,” Armoni told the Post.
“It’s really cool,” Zakai said. “It’s not often that two brothers play against each other in a big tournament like this. Our parents are very happy for us. We’re going to go out there and win. I can’t wait.
“Me and him, we’re two very competitive people. We’ve had a lot of fights over being competitive. At the end of the day, it’s still a team sport. Me and my team are very competitive as a team. We’re very competitive. I don’t know how they are on the team, but we’re very competitive. We’re going to go out there and do whatever it takes to win.
“Once I get between the lines, it doesn’t matter if it’s my friend, my brother, my dad. I’m just going to go out there and win.”
Asked what it would be like to play against each other, Armoni said: “It will be an aerial battle.
“It’s going to be a great emotional moment, but I can’t get too emotional. When we play tomorrow, he’s not my brother. After the game, he’s my brother, but now it’s different.”
As Coach Armoni spoke to the Post courtside, as Tennessee’s players were running onto the court for practice after St. Peter’s hour-long shootaround practice, Zakai ran up to the 2-year-old. I hugged my younger half-brother.
“That was a great moment,” Armoni said after the hug. “He means everything to me. That’s my little brother. That’s my heart. That’s my world. I love him to death.”
Armoni described his brother as “gritty, fast, and creates shots for himself and his teammates…He’s a great guard.”
He described himself as a “downhill, transition devil, can hit open shots, very athletic.”
Zakai and Armoni are half-brothers by birth.
They share a last name with their father.
“We don’t do things like half-brothers,” Armoni’s stepfather, Ryan O’Malley, told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “They’re brothers. They consider themselves brothers. There’s no half-siblings for that matter.”
“I was watching over these little boys when this was their dream,” Charmaine, Zakai’s mother and Armoni’s stepmother, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Now they’re all living the dream on the biggest stages from Long Island to North Carolina.
The brothers wear No. 5, their shared favorite number on their respective teams.
On Thursday, they will share the same floor.
“Those two have an unbelievable bond,” Vols forward Tobe Awaka said.
“I think it’s going to be a great moment for both of us,” Tennessee guard Santiago Vescovi said.
It’s a really great moment.
