Santiago Vescovi to miss charity exhibition vs. Michigan State to be with ailing grandmother

Tennessee basketball will be shorthanded for this weekend’s charity exhibition game at Michigan State.

Vols head coach Rick Barnes announced on Wednesday that guard Santiago Vescovi will be unavailable for Sunday’s game against the Spartans.

Vescovi, who led Tennessee in scoring last season, is returning to his home in Uruguay to be with a sick family member.

“Santi won’t [be available]. His grandmother’s not doing well. He’s going to leave tomorrow to go back home. She’s very, very ill right now,” Barnes said. “He’d like to be with his family, so he’s leaving [Thursday] to go back to Uruguay.”

Vescovi averaged 12.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season.

Tennessee could also be without another important player in Zakai Zeigler, who is working his way back from an injury.

Ziegler averaged 10.7 points and a team-high 5.4 assists per game in 2022-23.

“I think we won’t know with Zakai until probably Saturday when we get through at practice,” Barnes said. “He’s been fully cleared, and he’s starting to do more in practice. [Tuesday], he pretty much went through the majority of practice. I think he’ll do a lot [Wednesday] in the scrimmage when we get going. But that will be determined sometime, probably Saturday, to be quite frank. We’ll see how he does there.”

With Santiago Vescovi out and Zakai Zeigler potentially out, it opens up a lot of minutes for Tennesse.

Barnes is interested to see how his young players perform with an increased role.

“I think with our new guys, it’s going to be a great experience for them. I mean, when you’re talking about Santi and Zakai, you’re talking about two guys that are elite defenders, two guys that know what we want, two guys that bring speed to the court when they’re there. They change the court,” Barnes said.

“We know last year – when Zakai got hurt – one thing we wanted to do was get our depth right so we can deal with situations like this that we’re in. So we’re going to give those [young] guys probably a chance to play more than they’re ready for, if those guys don’t play. Because I don’t think they’re ready to play four minutes all out on both ends yet – younger guys.”

Barnes added that he sees this as a great learning opportunity for his young players. They will also likely see a tough environment in East Lansing.

“Getting it on film and letting them see it will probably grab their attention. As much as I try to show them every day film and everything, games are different,” Barnes said. “But we’ll see. I’m excited for them. I am. I’m excited for our young guys to see how they respond.”