Despite Santiago Vescovi averaging his lowest points average per game of his career this season, the Vols’ fifth-year guard’s selflessness has been instrumental to Tennessee’s success on the court so far this season.
As a player who has been in college basketball for years, most have already familiarized themselves with Vescovi’s acrobatic athleticism on the offensive end and key three-point shooting ability. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 13.3 PPG and 12.5 PPG during his junior and senior seasons as one of Tennessee’s offensive go-to weapons.
But Vescovi is impacting the game in different ways here in the 2023-2024 season. While Vescovi’s scoring totals are down, he is shooting tied for a career-high 41.3 percent on the season and is turning the ball over less than other previous seasons on average. Vescovi’s on-court IQ is also one of Tennessee’s most important weapons as fix-it general on the court.
“But Santi impacts the game in so many different ways, whether he is taking a lot of shots or not,” Rick Barnes said after Tennessee’s win over Kentucky on Saturday in Lexington. “But I love it when he’s driving. I love it when he takes his shots, but it’s what he does all around. His defensive game is just tremendous. And he’s not afraid to go mix it up rebounding-wise.”
Vescovi scored 11 points on an efficient 3-of-4 shooting night in Rupp Arena as all of his attempts were behind the three-point line thanks to Kentucky’s unimpressive perimeter defense. The fifth-year senior also added in four rebounds, two assists, and a block in the effort.
But the “unselfish” play that Barnes describes of Vescovi isn’t always seen in the box score. In the first half against the Wildcats, Vescovi scratched and clawed for a loose ball while defending in transition. Despite ending up bouncing around on the floor, Vescovi corralled the ball and got it out of the scrum with a pass to freshman Cam Carr, who found Josiah-Jordan James for the alley-oop on the offensive end. Vescovi’s hustle and determination to get that ball specifically denied potential points from the Wildcats and gave them to the Vols instead.
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Barnes also has a lot of trust in Vescovi after more than 130 games played together.
Vescovi’s teammates have great trust in him, too.
“And I think [Vescovi’s] demeanor, I think that he and Zakai [Zeigler] and Jahmai [Mashack] and Jonas [Aidoo] — I think those, all the older guys, they have a lot of trust in each other, a lot of confidence in each other,” Barnes said after the game. “And those guys are very real with each other. They really are. They are willing to, you know, they can talk through a lot of things. With Santi, Josiah and Mashack and Ziegler. They do an incredible job with fix-it plays when we break down and do some things and they can really cover each other’s back.”
Prior to the week that saw Tennessee lose to South Carolina and win against Kentucky, Vescovi spoke about his mindset regarding getting less volume than in past years in Knoxville. Vescovi sort of shrugged off the question and pointed toward his commitment to the team’s goal outweighing his own role.
“I’ve had that question before and really, to me, at this point in my life, I’m a fifth-year here, all I want to do is win,” Vescovi said. “I don’t really care who’s the main character of the movie, per se. I think we’re at a point with the team where really all we want to do is win. We have Dalton come up for us big time ofensively. He’s just the man at this point. We still need every other guy on the team but it’s more of a get used to your role, whatever it might be. It might change some games. [Dalton’s] come up big, some other games we have other guys come up big, too. So just adapt every single game to what the team needs out of you and keep playing together. So, yeah. It’s all about winning at this point.”
