On Wednesday, Rick Barnes announced that the Vols would be missing one more starter than anticipated for Saturday's exhibition against Michigan State. Santiago Vescovi, who has to go back home to Uruguay to deal with a personal issue, will not be playing Saturday for Tennessee.
According to Head Coach Rick Barnes, Vescovi's grandmother is very ill and not doing well, so he's returning home to be with his family. Barnes did not specify how long Vescovi would be away from the team. Without Vescovi, we now know that Tennessee will be down its' entire backcourt from a season ago, with Zakai Zeigler still recovering from a torn ACL.
According to Barnes, Zeigler has been doing more in practice and even mentioned that he expected him to do a lot in the scrimmage Tennessee had on Wednesday, but they won't know where he's at until he goes through practice on Saturday. Overall, Barnes thinks it's a great experience for some of the new guys that they have to play together and get experience. The Vols brought in 2 transfers and five freshmen, including Freddie Dilione and D.J. Jefferson, who were with the program last year and redshirted.
The Vols and Spartans will tip off on Saturday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan, at 3:30 P.M. EST on the Big Ten Network. All proceeds for the game will be donated to help the relief efforts from the wildfires in Maui. Tennessee will play in the Maui Invitational this season. After the exhibition, the Vols next game will count. On November 6th, Tennessee will open its regular season campaign at Thompson-Boling Arena against Tennessee Tech.
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