Rick Barnes says Santiago Vescovi has 'Level 2' sprain in left shoulder

Tennessee senior shooting guard Santiago Vescovi has a “Level 2” sprain in his left, shooting shoulder, head coach Rick Barnes said Monday night during his weekly appearance on The Vol Network’s ‘Vol Calls’ radio show.

“He felt better (on Monday),” Barnes said a day removed from Vescovi not dressing for the seventh-ranked Vols in their 94-40 win over Alcorn State at Thompson-Boling Arena. “Santi is the kind of guy that if you asked him to play, he would say, yeah, I’ll play. He’s just a tough guy. He would play though anything.

Tennessee (7-1) hosts Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time; TV: SEC Network) before going on the road for a big neutral-site game against No. 22 Maryland on Sunday in New York and an even bigger road game at No. 4 Arizona on December 17.

Barnes did not say during the radio interview if Vescovi would be available to play against Eastern Kentucky.

“He’s got a Level 2 sprain there in the shoulder,” Barnes said of the injury Vescovi suffered late in the 74-40 win over McNeese State last week, “came down against his left arm.”

Santiago Vescovi ‘day-to-day’ with shoulder injury

After the Alcorn State game Sunday, Barnes labeled Vescovi as “day-to-day.” 

“We knew he wasn’t going to play today,” Barnes said. “Yesterday we knew we were going to limit Josiah (Jordan James) to some minutes today, because he’s feeling better, obviously.”

James missed four games with knee soreness but made his return against Alcorn, playing 14 minutes off the bench. He received a loud ovation from the home crowd after checking in with just over 12 minutes left in the first half. He finished with four points, three assists and two rebounds.

“We had him limited in terms of how many minutes we wanted him to play,” Barnes said of James on Vol Calls. “We thought 13-14 minutes. We were thinking more in therms of two or three minutes at a time. Then we felt like based on the numbers they keep over there that he needed a good six-minute run there, which he got that, just a little bit over.

“But we knew we were going to keep him (to limited minutes). He wanted to play more, as you would expect. He loves it. He wants to get at it. We’ll keep monitoring that because we obviously want to get him right as we continue to go into the season.”

Vescovi did not practice on Friday at Pratt Pavilion. Tennessee is not scheduled to have an open practice before playing Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday.

Vescovi had 16 points in 33 minutes against McNeese State. He is leads Tennessee in scoring (12.0 points per game) and minutes (32.3 per game. He’s second in rebounding (5.0 per game), assists (24) and steals (18).

Vescovi was named Battle 4 Atlantis MVP after scoring 20 points and grabbing six rebounds in a 64-50 win over then-No. 3 Kansas on November 25. He scored 40 points, 15 rebounds an 10 assists over three games in the Bahamas as the Vols went through Butler, Southern Cal and Kansas to win the tournament championship. 

Up Next: No. 7 Tennessee vs. Eastern Kentucky, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Without Vescovi on Sunday, got a career-high 20 points from Olivier Nkamhoua, who added six assists and four rebounds. Five-star freshman wing Julian Phillips scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half and Zakai Zeigler scored 10 points off the bench.

Sophomore wing Jahmai Mashack had a career-high 13 points and added seven rebounds and four steals in his first career start, taking Vescovi’s place in the lineup. Uros Plavsic had 12 points and four rebounds. 

Tennessee had 27 assists on 33 field goals, shot 52.4 percent from the field and scored 50 points in the paint. The Vols scored 26 points off 22 Alcorn State turnovers. 

Barnes said it was his team’s most complete game of the season.

“When you look at it, the fact that we assisted 27 on 33 baskets,” he said. “That’s how we’re at our best. And we were able to turn some turnovers into some baskets, obviously, that makes it easier in some ways. But that was a good defensive effort. Overall I would tell you that it was our most complete game on both ends in terms of concentration.”