Santiago Vescovi makes announcement on future

Tennessee Volunteers guard Santiago Vescovi has declared for the 2022 NBA Draft, he announced Saturday afternoon on Instagram.

Vescovi, who just finished up his junior year, has two years of eligibility left due to the COVID-19 blanket waiver. Although he plans to test the waters in the NBA Draft, he specified that he’ll do so without an agent, thus maintaining his eligibility and leaving the door open for a potential return to Tennessee next season.

“Thank you to everyone who supported our team this season. This year’s team was very special, and playing alongside this group of teammates made my love for the game grow even stronger,” Vescovi wrote in an Instagram post. “Coach Barnes has encouraged me to go through the NBA Draft process, and I intend to take advantage of that opportunity while maintaining my collegiate eligibility. I know I have the full support of Vol Nation, and I look forward to the valuable experience and feedback I’ll receive in the weeks to come.”

A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, Vescovi prepped at NBA Global Academy in Australia. There, he developed into a three-star guard, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. That made Vescovi the No. 22-ranked point guard in the 2019 recruiting cycle, as well as the No. 142-ranked prospect in the class.

Vescovi is coming off his best season with Tennessee during the 2021-22 campaign, as he finished with both First Team All-SEC status and SEC All-Tournament Team recognition, helping lead the Volunteers to an SEC title in the process. Vescovi finished as the league’s leading three-point shooter, shooting 44.5 percent from beyond the arc (57-for-128) and averaging 14.3 points and 3.0 assists in conference play. Overall, Vescovi averaged 13.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this season, while notching 1.7 steals per game.

Vescovi also cracked the starting lineup on a consistent basis in his sophomore season, starting in 23 of 27 games during the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season. He led the team in minutes per game (29.2), while his 3.1 assists per game and 2.0 three-pointers made were also team-best tallies. Vescovi finished that year with 8.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assist per contest. A mid-year enrollee in 2019-20, Vescovi appeared in 19 games as a true freshman, scoring 10.7 points per game, along with 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists.

A 6-foot-3, 191-pound guard, Vescovi is currently not projected to be selected by most major NBA Draft outlets, so a return to Tennessee — at least this early in the process — appears likely.