Santiago Vescovi assesses where Tennessee stands at this point in the season

Tennessee has made themselves known all throughout this college basketball season. They’ve been a mainstay in the Top-25, have been within the Top-10 since the start of December, and, as of this weekend, earned their highest ranking in the AP Poll since February 2019 as the No. 2 team in the country.

Still, senior guard Santiago Vescovi says this campaign for the Volunteers has been less about the recent run of success and more about the roller coaster ride as a whole. In the end, he also says there’s no one else he’d rather be experiencing it with than this season’s group.

“I like what this team has been the whole year, to be honest. The ups and downs,” Vescovi said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of people and players. We’re all riding this wave together. I just love all of them.”

Vescovi may be the leading scorer at 12.2 points per game but, in total, Tennessee’s depth is very impressive. They go 10 deep in the rotation with four players averaging double-digits. In total, they have eight players scoring five points or more per game. Pair that with their top-ranked defense in several metrics and you can see how this edition of Rick Barnes’ Volunteers get it done through such a team effort.

This Tennessee team has a genuine shot to make it to Houston and achieve the school’s first-ever appearance in the Final Four. As they continue their journey toward trying to do so in February, though, Vescovi is going to continue to just soak it all in.

Rick Barnes shares what will make Tennessee successful in February

The Tennessee Volunteers are having an impressive season, currently sitting at 18-3 and ranked No. 2 in the nation. But there is always room for improvement, especially as tournament time inches closer and closer. So, with that in mind, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes shared his list of things his team will need to improve on to be successful in February and through the last part of the season.

“I think ball scream defense will always start on the defensive end where you got to be good,” said Barnes. “You got to be really good in ball screen coverage, got to be able to guard, gotta win those individual battles, rebounding, and then the fact that now you’re looking for consistency. I think role definition becomes probably more important; it becomes a little bit clearer. But with that said, knowing there’s a lot of basketball left to play, that could still change a little bit too.

“And then on the offensive end, we’ve gotta be consistent. We’ve gotta get certain guys in certain areas of the court where they can be effective. And that’s on me, obviously.”

As Barnes attempted to highlight what needs to be done offensively, he was reminded of one struggle in particular that came up in Saturday’s matchup against Texas. The Volunteers struggled from beyond the arc, only making six of their 19 three-point attempts. Still, it was their transition defense that truly got underneath his skin.

“But I would say to you one thing for certain; we gotta get better transition defense. That is an absolute must. We’ve got to get better there. We gave up a couple of wide-open shots in the game Saturday. And we can’t do that as we continue to go through February.”