'Where it all started': Leading Vols to Battle 4 Atlantis title was a full-circle moment for Santiago Vescovi

It was only fitting last week that Santiago Vescovi was back at Atlantis in the Bahamas.

It was only fitting, too, that he was named the Battle 4 Atlantis MVP after leading No. 13 Tennessee to the tournament championship after wins over Butler, Southern Cal and Kansas.

For Tennessee’s senior guard, Paradise Island is where the trajectory of his basketball career was forever changed.

“It was just funny, coming back to the Atlantis,” Vescovi said Friday night, after scoring a game-high 20 points to lead the Vols to the 64-50 win over the Jayhawks in the championship game.  “I was talking to the people from the NBA Academy. We were texting the other day and I told them I was where it all started, here in the Bahamas.”

In July 2017, Atlantis hosted a Basketball Without Borders Camp. The participants came from 16 countries and included Vescovi and future Illinois star center Kofi Cockburn, among others.

Santiago Vescovi earned spot at NBA Academy after breakout performance at Atlantis

Vescovi was only 15 at the time, but starred in the camp and was chosen for the All-Star game, where he was coached by current Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham.

“That’s how I got found out,” Vescovi said, “and how I got invited to NBA Academy.”

His performance at Atlantis then helped him land a spot at the NBA Academy Latin America, which opened in Mexico City in 2018. From there, Vescovi went to The NBA Global Academy in Australia. 

The NBA Academy provides elite prospects with NBA-level coaching, facilities and competition. Only 12 players earn spots the Academy each year and work under NBA-trained personnel. Prospects at the Academy are full-time student-athletes, receiving scholarships to local schools.

Vescovi led the NBA Global Academy to a championship in the 2019 NBA Academy Games, leading his team in scoring in both the semifinal and championships games as a 17-year-old.

Tennessee found Vescovi, a three-star prospect in the 2019 recruiting cycle, and started the recruitment process that same year. The Vols got him on campus in November, a few weeks removed from Vescovi visiting Temple. 

His offer list at the time included Tennessee, Temple, Butler, Miami, Rutgers and Washington State. Kansas and Saint Mary’s showed interest, but didn’t offer. 

“It was late in the process,” Vescovi said of the Vols coming after him. “They started talking to me, I was visiting one school and they told just to not make any quick decisions, just give them a chance. And then that’s what I did. I visited the other school, then I came to visit Tennessee.”

He committed to Tennessee two days after his visit. He enrolled five weeks after that.  

“Just fell in love with the people (at Tennessee),” Vescovi said, “fell in love with the facilities, the coaching staff, all the players. The sense of family that they have here is nowhere close to to any other place in the States. 

Up Next: No. 13 Tennessee vs. McNeese State, Wednesday, 7:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network

“I knew I was going to get better coming here every single day,” Vescovi added. “That’s one of the things they told me that I still remember. That here, you compete against the best players every single day and that’s how you get better the most.”

After enrolling, Vescovi was immediately thrown into the starting lineup for the SEC opener against LSU, after Tennessee lost Lamonte Turner to a season-ending shoulder injury two weeks before. The Vols lost 78-64 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Vescovi’s debut, but their new shooting guard, who had been on campus for all of a week, scored 18 points, going 6-for-9 from the 3-point line in 32 minutes. 

“(He had) two days (of) practice,” head coach Rick Barnes said Friday night, looking back. “But he’s totally transformed his body. He walked into a situation that year that year, where our program was in transition, where he and Josiah (Jordan James) were both coming in and a lot was put on them.”

Vescovi would go on to average 10.7 points per game, starting all 19 games he appeared in during his whirlwind freshman season. He averaged 30.3 minutes per game and shot 36.0 percent from the 3-point line.

He averaged 13.3 points in 31.2 minutes per game last season, career-best numbers, shooting 40.3 percent from the 3-point line while making 102 threes on the season. He shot 44.5 percent from the arc in SEC play, making 3.17 threes per game and 57 in total, leading the league in each category.

Back at Atlantis Friday night, where everything came full circle, Vescovi was named the Battle 4 Atlantis MVP after leading Tennessee to the tournament title. Over three games he combined for 40 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists and five steals. On Monday he added SEC Player of the Week honors.

“He has been a mainstay for us,” Barnes said.