Santiago Vescovi shares how his role has changed after Zakai Zeigler's injury

The loss of Zakai Zeigler is one that Tennessee has felt in several facets of their play. The Volunteers lost their heartbeat with him out of the lineup but they’ve also lost a key part of their defense as well as a large chunk of their playmaking.

Even so, Santiago Vescovi knows all that means is it’s all hands on decks for the Vols now in March. For him, that means changing his game and learning to play with the basketball in his hands more as their lead guard.

“(I’m) definitely learning to play more on the ball now,” Vescovi said. “We’re missing a big part of our offense with Zakai not being out there. But I think the other guys are doing a great job stepping up.”

Beyond that, though, he says that they’ll need to keep giving a group effort on both ends. They obviously all wish Zeigler was still out there with them. Since he’s not, though, Vescovi says every member of the Vols, young or old, must be ready to do whatever they need to in order to keep Tennessee’s season alive.

“The old guys and the new guys are doing a great job of sticking together. At this point, if we want to win? We know we’re going to have to play together, even more now that we don’t have Zakai,” said Vescovi. “Everybody is going to have to put more effort on offense and defense every single time that we’re out there. We definitely miss him but we’ve still got enough players to go out there and do our thing.”

Tennessee has played three games without Zeigler with varying results. They’re 1-2 with the only win coming against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. Meanwhile, the two losses came against SEC teams that made the NCAA Tournament field in Auburn and Missouri.

This is not the ideal hand to be dealing with considering the Volunteers open their March Madness run tonight against Louisiana. Still, it’s the one Tennessee has been dealt and the one that Vescovi says he and his teammates are prepared to overcome by any means.