Trio Of Vols Earn All-SEC Honors

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Tennessee’s backcourt has proved to be its strength and one of the SEC’s best this winter. The SEC’s coaches agree, voting a trio of UT guards to the All-SEC teams.

Shooting guard Santiago Vescovi landed on the eight-player First Team, Kennedy Chandler landed on the eight-player Second Team and five-player all-freshman team while Zakai Zeigler landed on the all-freshman and five player defensive team.

Vescovi is in the midst of a breakout junior season. The Montevideo, Uruguay native played point guard his first two years in Knoxville and struggled at times with the speed and athleticism of the point guards in the rest of the league.

With Chandler and Zeigler’s emergence, Vescovi moved off the ball and took off. The southpaw averaged 14.3 points and three assists per game in SEC play. Vescovi proved to be one of the SEC’s best shooters making a conference high 44.5% of his three-point attempts.

Vescovi currently sits at 87 made three-pointers this season. The mark ranks eighth in program history, but the junior is quickly climbing up the list.

The sharpshooter is the third Tennessee player to land on the First Team All-SEC team under Rick Barnes, joining Grant Williams (2018 & 2019) and Admiral Schofield (2019).

Chandler has lived up to his billing as the nation’s top prep point guard a season ago. The Memphis native has gotten better as the season has gone on and hit his stride in SEC play, averaging 13.8 points, 4.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game.

The point guard’s 6-foot-7 wingspan made him a nuisance on the defensive end and allowed him to be more creative finishing at the basket.

Despite a slow stretch of shooting in December and January, Chandler proved to be a reliable shooter from beyond the arc making 35.9% of his three-point attempts in conference play.

Chandler tied with Arkansas’ guard J.D. Notae for the most steals per game in the conference, making his seclusion from the all-defensive team surprising.

While big things were expected out of Chandler this season, Zeigler’s emergence proved to be one of the biggest surprises of the season.

Serving as Tennessee’s sixth-man, Zeigler averaged 10.1 points per game on 36% shooting from the field, 36% shooting from three-point range and 87% shooting from the free-throw line.

Zeigler scored in double digits just once in the 11 game pre conference slate, before scoring in double digits in 13 of 18 SEC games.

On the defensive end, the 5-foot-9 guard proved to be a pest with his quickness and ball skills. Zeigler tallied 40 steals in 18 SEC games.

Zeigler becomes the fourth player in Tennessee history to land on the All-SEC Defensive Team.

Despite being an elite defender and the Vols’ Swiss army knife, forward Josiah-Jordan James did not make any of the All-Conference teams.

You can view the full All-SEC teams and postseason honors here.