Santiago Vescovi faded off an off ball screen from Jonas Aidoo, luring the big man’s defender onto him as he so often does with opponents respecting his stout three-point shooting. Vescovi leaped to catch Zakai Zeigler’s pass and fired the ball while still in the air to a rolling Jonas Aidoo for an easy dunk.
The play marked Vescovi’s 400th career assist and it was a fitting play for him to reach the milestone. The Uruguayan sharp shooter displayed a flair for dramatic passing when he arrived on Tennessee’s campus and he showed that he hasn’t lost a beat in that regard four years later.
that’s some pretty basketball if we do say so ourselves
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📲 https://t.co/bgmSaWtEL3 pic.twitter.com/c8Szk9N2wT— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) January 3, 2024
Vescovi joined rare company with his 400th assist becoming just the second Tennessee player (Allan Houston) and fourth SEC player in the last 20 years to record 1,400 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists in his career. The shooting guard is the eighth active college basketball player to reach that mark.
While Vescovi is in his fifth collegiate season, he’s only played in a modest 127 games— an average of 31.5 games over a four-season career— because he arrived in late December of his freshman season and because the Vols played only 27 games in the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season.
The milestone is a fitting one for Vescovi’s career. His three-point shooting is his most esteemed trait but he affects basketball games in so many ways more than just his perimeter shooting.
Despite not being a plus-athlete, he’s turned himself into a plus-defender because of his high IQ. Being in elite cardio shape and capable of playing extremely hard for 30-plus minutes a game helps too. That trait has been key in him becoming one of Rick Barnes’ most trusted players.
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“Defensively, what he does to fix plays. He is a guy that single-handedly that can cover a lot of mistakes for his teammates,” Barnes said. “Santi really anticipates well. He is so akin to scouting reports. He knows it. He watches it. Once a team runs a play, if they run it again, he is already thinking about how he can defend it different and how something can happen. His basketball IQ defensively is there.”
At 6-foot-3 he’s not an elite rebounder, but he’s not afraid to put his body on the line while attacking the glass. His offensive rebound against Kentucky in the 2022 SEC Tournament Semifinal secured one of the program’s best achievements in Barnes’ tenure.
Offensively, his shooting range and movement without the ball stretches defenses and opens up opportunities for his teammates. That was on display last season after Zakai Zeigler went down and Tennessee ran its offense through a player most effective off the ball.
There’s no denying that Vescovi’s instincts and basketball smarts are superb. He’s an effective player when he’s not shooting well because of it. That’s been key early this season when his perimeter shooting’s faltered.
“He can run a whole play. He can set up a whole play and it will work on his own without Coach drawing it up or anything like that,” point guard Zakai Zeigler said of Vescovi. “People don’t notice how smart he really is and how he can pick up on defense, and just do what he does. And we see that every day and see it in practice. Like he’ll randomly just do something, that we might not see, but we’ll listen to him because we trust him and we know what he can do. Just by listening to him, things will go good. People just don’t see how smart he really is on the court.”
Vescovi isn’t off to the start he envisioned in his super senior season but his career three-point shooting marks and on-court intelligence makes it difficult to imagine that he won’t get back to form in SEC play. That might not include him scoring at the same rate he did the last two seasons because Tennessee isn’t running as much stuff through him.
But even without scoring, the super senior is an effective player. And that’s one of the most commendable parts of Vescovi’s game. He’s turned himself into a back-to-back First Team All-SEC shooting guard as an average athlete.
His quest to make it a third straight All-SEC appearance begins on Saturday when Tennessee hosts No. 22 Ole Miss in its SEC opener.
