Santiago Vescovi to miss Tennessee basketball's charity exhibition game at Michigan State

Tennessee basketball will be shorthanded Sunday afternoon in the charity exhibition game at Michigan State. Head coach Rick Barnes on Tuesday announced Wednesday afternoon that Santiago Vescovi will miss the game while dealing with a family matter.

Vescovi, the fifth-year senior shooting guard, is scheduled to fly home to Uruguay to be with ailing grandmother and his family in the coming days.

“Santi won’t (be available),” Barnes said before practice at Thompson-Boling Arena. “His grandmother is not doing well. He’s gonna leave tomorrow to go back home. And she’s very, very ill right now and he’d like to be with his family. So he’s leaving tomorrow to go back to Uruguay.”

It has not yet been determined if junior point guard Zakai Zeigler will be available while he continues to comeback from the torn ACL that ended his sophomore season on February 28.

“I think we won’t know with Zakai until probably Saturday when we get through a practice,” Barnes said. “And you know, when he’s been fully cleared. And he’s starting to do more in practice. Yesterday he pretty much went through the majority of practice yesterday. I think he’ll do a lot today in the scrimmage when we get going today.”

Tennessee, ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25, plays No. 4 Michigan State at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Sunday. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time start and will be televised by Big Ten Network. 

Money raised in the exhibition game will go to the Maui wildlife relief efforts. 

Vols have not ‘set a date’ for Zakai Zeigler’s return

Vescovi last week was voted First Team All-SEC in the preseason media poll and Zeigler was voted Second Team All-SEC. The Vols were picked to win the league, coming in ahead of No. 2 Texas A&M.

Zeigler himself said last week at SEC Media Day in Birmingham that returning in time for the Michigan State scrimmage was “the goal,” but that the decision wouldn’t be his to make.

“I would love to play against Michigan State,” he said at the time. “That would be what, a preseason top-10 matchup? So I would love to, but I’m just listening to the athletic trainers and to whatever they tell me.”

Zeigler suffered a season-ending torn ACL against Arkansas on February 28. He drove baseline and fell to the court with the non-contact injury. He had surgery in March, just before the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, after the swelling went down.

He was averaging 10.7 points, 5.3 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game before the injury.

“If you ask him,” Barnes said last week, “obviously he would tell you he wants to be be ready and play to play. But again, when we get there, we’ll decide. But I don’t think we’ve really set a date yet because we’re gonna err on the caution side of it.”

“As much as he’s champing at the bit to get going, he knows that we’re going to look at it from a long-haul situation,” Barnes added. “And he’ll be good with it because he trusts his teammates and he know they’ve worked hard. 

“And when he gets back, he knows that he can help us. Obviously he changes the floor every time he’s out there, but we’re going to take care of him physically first.”

Tennessee opens regular season on November 6 vs. Tennessee Tech

After facing Michigan State Sunday, Tennessee has a quick turnaround, hosting Lenoir-Rhyne in another exhibition game on Tuesday (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The regular-season schedule opens against Tennessee Tech on November 6 (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) and the Vols go to Wisconsin for the first road game of the season on November 10 (9 p.m. ET, Peacock), at the Kohl Center in Madison. 

Last season Vescovi led Tennessee in minutes (32.3), points (12.5), three-point percentage (.370), threes made (91) and steals and was second in assists with 102. He announced in April his plans to return for a fifth year with the Vols.

“He’s in elite condition,” Barnes said last week. “He’s the one guy that I don’t want him to have to play as many minutes as he played last year, but he’s a guy that could play that and more if he had to. 

“Hopefully these younger guys can figure it out so we can use that depth, rest him. Hope at the end of the year he’ll have a lot more left than he has the last couple years because he’s had to play so much.”