Rick Barnes reacts to Santiago Vescovi's play against Illinois

Santiago Vescovi was key in No. 17 Tennessee’s 86-79 win over No. 20 Illinois in a battle of top-20 teams in college basketball. Head coach Rick Barnes was particularly complimentary.

Vescovi put up 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists. WHile he wasn’t the leading scorer on the night, the guard was a big reason why Tennessee maintained its lead throughout the game.

Barnes was quite pleased to see the Vescovi of old.

“It was,” Barnes said postgame. “He’s been such a big part of who we had been the last couple years. And to see him come out playing the way he did, he’s kept a plan. He’s had a tough semester. 

“He lost his grandmother, that’s hard, but he would say it’s been hard academically. Because he’s serious about getting done what he wants to get done there. But just really proud of the fact that he and our older guys, I thought, really were well prepared for this game.”

Vescovi can score, everyone knows that. But Barnes opened up on what he provided against Illinois outside of actually taking the ball to the hoop.

“Aggressive mentality,” Barnes said. “I thought he was really aggressive and rebounding the ball. Again, I talk about fix-it plays with those older guys and they do help each other a lot that they can fix each other’s mistakes at times out there on the fly, which is obviously so important. But when he’s aggressive like that and getting, we got the ball inside, you know, and it doesn’t have to be just throw it in there, you know, we gotta get movement. 

“And Santi goes down to score. I mean, we get that penetration. Jordan (Gainey) did it, ‘Z’ he’s gonna do it. Josiah did it. We’ve gotta play inside-out. But when Santi’s bringing that aggressive mentality, I think it affects everyone.”

Vescovi will have to play at a high level, particularly if Barnes decides to use a shorter rotation throughout the season.

“Are we perfect? No,” Barnes said. “But we’re gonna get there. But I wouldn’t say that I’ve made up my mind for the rest of the year. We’re gonna shorten bench. We have to, we will. But players make you play them. Players will just, I’ve always said that players decide who’s going to play and we see a guy that’s doing everything he can and practice, we know that we want to get them in there. 

“We’re gonna find a way to get them a minute here or two minutes there because we want to continue to build this thing, but we’re not giving away minutes to anybody.”