Not only did Tennessee’s team get a win on Saturday, but one of the Vols’ players got a big win, too.
After Tennessee’s 66-45 victory over Vanderbilt in Nashville on Saturday, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes announced that walk-on redshirt junior guard Jacob Fleschman had been awarded a scholarship. The official Tennessee basketball Twitter account posted a video of Barnes telling Fleschman and his teammates in the visiting locker room after the game.
BLACKJACK’S GOING ON SCHOLLY!!!
Congrats @jfleschman4 ♠ pic.twitter.com/S7QiKECIVf
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) January 19, 2020
The 6-foot-3, 176-pound guard from Austin, Texas has appeared in three games for the Vols this season and has played in 10 games in his UT career. He sank a three-pointer in Tennessee’s 76-41 victory over Alabama State back on November 20th and also appeared for two minutes in Tennessee’s wins over Florida A&M and Jacksonville State.
Fleschman made a three-pointer last season as well, appearing in five games during the Vols’ 2018-19 campaign. In his career, Fleschman has played 23 minutes and has scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting, totaling two assists and a rebound in his 23 minutes of action.
The redshirt junior guard graduated from Westlake High School in Austin, TX and was a First-Team All-District 14-6A selection by the Austin American-Statesman in his senior year. He averaged 11 points, four rebounds, and four assists per game while shooting 45 percent from three. He helped the Chaparrals to a 30-4 overall record.
With Fleschman earning a scholarship, the Vols now have 11 active players on scholarship for the current 2019-20 season. Jordan Bowden is UT’s only senior on scholarship, and Fleschman joins John Fulkerson and Jalen Johnson as redshirt juniors on scholarship. Yves Pons, a junior, and Uros Plavsic, a redshirt freshman, are the only other active scholarship players on UT’s roster who are not true freshmen.
Redshirt senior Lamonte Turner is also on scholarship, but he is out the rest of the season after having season-ending shoulder surgery. Oregon transfer guard Victor Bailey Jr. is also on scholarship, but he is not active for this season.
Tennessee now has two players as walk-ons on their roster rather than three. Sophomore forward Brock Jancek and junior guard Kofi Maze are UT’s only walk-ons now.
