Rick Barnes details the small things Santiago Vescovi does to help Tennessee

Tennessee G Santiago Vescovi has been a staple for the Volunteers over his five years in Knoxville. However, for as great as he has been in spots, Rick Barnes says there’s even more than meets the eye when it comes to his value to their team.

Barnes spoke about Vescovi’s impact during a postgame press conference last week. He started with his effect on the game on defense. His intelligence makes a major difference, especially when he notes and pairs his off-court scouting with his own in-game adjustments

“Defensively? What he does to fix plays,” said Barnes. “I mean he’s a guy that single-handedly can cover up a lot of mistakes for his teammates.”

“I would say that he – and the older guys do it pretty well – but Santi really anticipates so well. He’s so keen to scouting reports – he knows it, he watches it,” Barnes explained. “Once a team runs a play? They run it again and he’s already thinking about how he can defend it different, how something can happen.”

Then, on the offensive side of the ball, Barnes described how the threat of Vescovi anywhere puts pressure on a defense since they have to pay attention to him. Now, with that in mind, all he needs is for Vescovi to start hoisting as a threat from deep again since he’s currently taking a career-low in attempts from three.

“Then, offensively, his movement,” Barnes said. “Again, he’s another guy that I think should shoot more threes.”

In his fifth-year season on Rocky Top, Vescovi is posting career-worst numbers almost across the board. With 8.2 points, 2.7 assists, and 0.9 steals, they’re all the lowest that they’ve been in his collegiate career. That’s not to mention just his six shots per game while knocking down only 33.9% of his threes.

Even so, that speaks less to a regression from Vescovi and says more about his team this season. Rather than shouldering a large load, he can play as a cog, an important one at that, in the machine that has Tennessee as a top-five team at 11-3. In that role, some of those other characteristics, like the ones Barnes noted, are what start to shine in his performances.

It’s true that, statistically, Vescovi is having one of his least impactful years on the court. However, when it comes to his overall touch on the game, Barnes knows the Volunteers may have almost no more vital asset than his guard out of Uruguay.