They're finally gone: Santiago Vescovi and Uros Plavsic Edition

Tennessee will look slightly different than you’re used to seeing in past matchups with Kentucky. There will be some familiarity in Orange. Rick Barnes is still there, coaching physicality and defense in his tenth season in Knoxville. Thompson-Boling Arena hasn’t gone anywhere either, although Food City sponsors it now.

Zakai Zeigler? Yep. Believe it or not, he is still around, too. Zeigler has given Kentucky fits going back to his early ’90s matchups with Sean Woods and Travis Ford, and he is having the best season of his career in 2024-25. Zeigler is the LeBron James of the Southeastern Conference in how he plays at a high level despite a career spanning several generations.

However, Zeigler runs a new generation of Tennessee this season, one without the Vols’ other Van Wilders of basketball. Not one, but two of Zeigler’s favorite teammates finally graduated, leaving Zeigler as the lone veteran in Knoxville.

What happened to Santiago Vescovi and Uros Plavsic anyway?

Santiago Vescovi

We lived in a different world when Santiago Vescovi first suited up for the Vols, back in the pre-COVID era of humanity. The Wildcats would see Vescovi eleven times over the next five years, narrowly winning the series at 6-5 in that span. Vescovi scored 17+ points in four of those games.

Vescovi finally exhausted his eligibility in Knoxville after last season, leaving as the only player in program history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 150 steals in a career. The Uruguayan guard also broke Tennessee’s record for starts–excuse me–he shattered Tennessee’s record for starts by 16 games.

These days, Vescovi plays professionally for Baxi Manresa of the Liga ABC in Spain. He scored six points in a loss to Valencia last night, so he’s far away from the Kentucky-Tennessee game for the first time since 2019.

Uros Plavsic

Uros Plavic was another fixture at many Kentucky-Tennessee games. He learned under the tutelage of John Fulkerson, another extended-stay Volunteer, for a couple of seasons before taking over Fulkerson’s role as Tennessee’s villain in the 2022-23 season.

Plavsic was not a part of Tennessee’s 2024 Elite Eight run. Still, he and Fulkerson were Kentucky antagonists for many years. Plavsic now plays professionally in Turkey after a summer with the Serbian national team at the Paris Olympics, where he was teammates with Nikola Jokic in Serbia’s bronze medal run. Fulky was last seen in Poland.

More naming random Tennessee players

The name-a-random-Tennessee-player game has been a lot of fun over at KSBoard as we count down to tip-off in Knoxville. Join us over there for more on Major Wingate, Wayne Chism, JP Prince, Scooter McFadgon, Admiral Schofield, Grant Williams, and other Vols of yesterday.