Shooting guard Santiago Vescovi is moving up the Tennessee basketball record books. After dishing out three assists in the Vols’ 87-66 win over George Mason, Vescovi moved into 10th place in program history with 387 career-assists.
The fifth-year senior is in position to do a good bit more climbing up the record books this season. Vescovi is just one assist behind Fred Jenkins and 10 assists behind Michael Brooks making it almost a foregone conclusion that he’ll move into eighth place in Tennessee’s career assist list by the end of the month.
Barring injury, Vescovi will pass Jordan Bone (405) to move all the way up to seventh in the record books by the end of the season. The big question is if Vescovi can total 74 more assists this season to pass Allan Houston and move into sixth place. It appears unlikely that the super senior guard will crack the top five.
Vescovi is already in third-place in program history for made three-pointers in his career. At 292 made three-pointers, Vescovi is only 54 three-pointers away from passing Houston to move into second place in program history. The Montevideo, Uruguay native is not in striking distance of the record as former All-American Chris Lofton totaled 431 made triples in his storied career.
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Entering the season, Vescovi looked like a shoe-in to pass Houston and move into second place on the list after making 102 and 91 three-pointers, respectively, the last two seasons. But Vescovi is off to a slow start in his fifth collegiate season and has made just 10 triples in the first nine games of the season.
The All-SEC shooting guard is averaging 7.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game while shooting a career-worst 31% from three-point range to date. But Vescovi has proven he’s an elite shooter during his college career and it feels like a matter of time before he starts hitting triples at a higher rate.
He’ll look to do that as No. 17 Tennessee hosts No. 20 Illinois in a marquee non conference matchup at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Saturday. Tipoff between the Vols and Fighting Illini is at noon ET. CBS is broadcasting the game.
