Santiago Vescovi reached an elite Tennessee basketball milestone with his last assist
Santiago Vescovi joined elite company with his first assist Tuesday night against Norfolk State, when his pass led to a Jonas Aidoo dunk to give No. 5 Tennessee a 50-23 lead at Thompson-Boling Arena.
With the assist, Vescovi joined Allan Houston as the only other Tennessee basketball player in program history to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists.
Houston during his legendary four-year run at Tennessee from 1989 to 1993 scored 2,801 points and had 517 rebounds and 460 assists in 128 games. Vescovi in 127 games over the last four-plus seasons has 1,422 points, 524 rebounds and 401 assists.
In the last 20 years, only three other SEC players have reached the 1,400 ponts, 500 rebounds and 400 assists: Sundiata Gaines (Georgia, 2004-08), Jamont Gordon (Mississippi State, 2005-08) and Charles Mann (Georgia, 2012-16).
Santiago Vescovi in 127 games at Tennessee: 11.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 30.7 minutes per game
Vescovi is now the eighth active Division I players in the 1,400/500/400 club: RayJ Dennis (Baylor); Aaron Estrada (Alabama); Tristen Newton (UConn); Tyler Robertson (Portland); Baylor Scheierman (Creighton); Andrew Taylor (Mississippi State); Jahmir Young (Maryland).
For his career, Vescovi is averaging 11.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 30.7 minutes per game while shooting 39.7% from the field and 37.7% from the 3-point line.
He averaged a career-high 13.3 points per game as a junior in 2021-22, a carer-high 4.6 rebounds last season and a career high 3.7 assists as a freshman in 2019-20, when he joined the Vols in December 2019 as a midyear enrollee.
Vescovi made 102 3-pointers in 2021-22, becoming only the second Tennessee player, joining Chris Lofton, to make 100 threes in a season. Vescovi made 36 threes in 19 games as a freshman, 53 in 27 games as a sophomore and 91 in 33 games as a junior and is 300-for-795 from the 3-point line during his career.
“He is another guy that I think should shoot more threes,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said on Tuesday after Tennessee’s 87-50 win over Norfolk State.
‘People don’t notice how smart he really is’
The bigger compliment from Barnes focused on the defensive end.
“He is a guy that single-handedly that can cover a lot of (defensive) mistakes for his teammates,” Barnes said. “I would say that he and the older guys do it pretty well. 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.”
Junior point guard Zakai Zeigler echoed what his head coach said. What Vescovi does best doesn’t necessarily show up in the box score, but shows up on the court.
“Just the little things,” Zeigler said. “Like, he can run a whole play. He can set up a whole play and it will work on his own without Coach (Barnes) drawing it up or anything like that.
“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.”
