Austin Price:
Hello everybody. Welcome in for another episode of Ball Club Confidential. I'm your host Austin Price. Hope you enjoyed last week's episode with Jemiah Maschek. Coming up tonight on the show we have Santiago Vescovi, but before then we bring in Hunter Badu of the volunteer club and Hunter, it's an exciting time of year. You've got baseball getting ready to get started up. You've got basketball and full swing as Rick Barnes and company continue to win some big basketball games, but it's also merch season. It's always merch season. Absolutely. With the volunteer club and you're wearing a couple of those or at least one of those Lays that was inspired and designed by the Iava family. Absolutely,

Hunter Badu:
And you can look right behind us. We're constantly trying to push new product, but we have now these lays from Nico's new apparel line that are available on our website@thevolunteerclub.com. Encouraged fall club members to go check that out and also obviously our basketball team is having great success and Dalton Connect continues to just amaze and so we have these new Connect three Dalton Connect shirts, so we encourage our Vol club members to check those out as well as other products that we

Austin Price:
Have as well. Inspired by obviously the board game Connect four. Were you a big Connect four fan growing up? I

Hunter Badu:
Was, but I was not very good at it. That probably doesn't surprise you.

Austin Price:
No, it does not. If you want to improve, I expect to find you down at the local bingo hall, play 'em Connect four with some people you could go down to Main Event. They have kind of a modern version of that down there. I'll

Hunter Badu:
Get on that. Thank you. Good

Austin Price:
Advice. He is Hunter Badu always with a good smile, but let's get to tonight's big smile and that is Santiago. It's been a little less than five years since you walked onto a court in January. Could you have ever imagined the path this was going to take when you enrolled kind of midseason five years ago?

Santiago Vescovi:
Definitely not. I would never guess I was going to be here for five years. I mean, once I first got to be here the first months, then I could tell that I belong to this place. There's a lot of things that I love about the University of Tennessee from on the court off the court, my teammates, coaching staff, everybody that's around the fans, there's a lot of positives and I could have told you that I felt really comfortable here and I could see myself living here in the future, but I would've never guessed that I would've stayed here for five years.

Austin Price:
When we had Jackson Ross out, who's the punter on the football team or Australian, he talked about that first month he was here. He's like, I cried. It takes a lot for man to admit. He cried like 10 times. Right? You say he cried like 10 or 15 times in that first 30 days, but he was redshirting. You hit the ground and just went to playing. So I don't think you had any time for emotions to really hit you. Is that fair from a standpoint of you didn't really have that kind of like, oh, I'm homesick, you were just for playing. I

Santiago Vescovi:
Think there's a couple things to that that people don't know. First of all, I know Jackson personally basic, one of the greatest guys, he has a dog now too. Dog's real cute. But the difference between Jackson and me other than that I played right away is that Yuba is really far from here, but it's only one hour of

Austin Price:
Time. Difference. Difference.

Santiago Vescovi:
I lived in Australia for six months and

Austin Price:
You're in a different time zone. It's hard to,

Santiago Vescovi:
I'm telling you that time difference a huge, it plays a huge part into this whole thing. I remember once I lived there when I was living there, my parents, it was just hard to communicate because the only two times that I could talk to 'em was either earlier in the morning when I was waking up and they were going to bed or the other way around when I was going to bed they were waking up. So during the whole day they was asleep and when I was asleep they were awake. So that's a lot tougher to deal with. I struggled a little more when I was in Australia too for that same reason. But I guess you could say too that I didn't have time to cry or think about that I'm being away from home and I was already used to it too. By the time I got to the states, I'd been away from home for I'd say two years. So that two years prior coming here kind of prepared me. How would

Austin Price:
You describe your game?

Santiago Vescovi:
My game, I describe it as somebody that can think the game. I think I can shoot and I can play off the ball a lot better than I could play on the ball too. And mainly just shooter. I can really think the game and defensively, I think I've improved a lot and yeah, I mean I think I can

Austin Price:
Crafty.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, definitely crafty. That's kind of international players. I think that we have that compared to the USA players and the main thing is I'm not athletic or to the extent that the SECS for example. So growing up if I didn't have that craftiness, it was pretty much have it or you're not going to be able to play. I can't out jump people here in the SEC. So that's kind of where you build that craftiness at this point, just adapting pretty much to my surroundings. Of course we have a couple players like Dalton come in that offensively are putting numbers that we've never seen in the past X amount of years here at Tennessee. So kind of just trying to adapt my game and kind shape it around him. How

Austin Price:
Has he altered you? I mean everything was running a lot through you before he got here and they were finding ways to get you open and that type of thing and now it's more kind of clear out and he kind of does his thing and you're in a different role. How has that affected you and how much do you like the kind of new role? Take me through it. I

Santiago Vescovi:
Don't think at this point really I'm a 50 year and at this point in my life all I'm thinking about is winning. To be honest. I really could care less about stats, whether I'm getting three points, 10, 20 or whatever it might be. It's definitely a different role that I have right now to what I used to have. The main thing I think now is that we're playing a different basketball too. We're playing a lot more guys with the ball in their hands, creating their own shots. So that's where I have to I guess improve my game to fit better into the team too. But like I said, we have guys playing really, really good and at this point I really, all I want to do is win, so I'm going to keep doing whatever I can to help the team and then see what we can do in the future.

Austin Price:
Do you like the fact that this team every game, it's somebody stepping up. I mean you go back to the Ole Miss game, Dalton scores eight, but Jonah scores like 24 and you had a little bit of a slump there for Jordan Gainey and then all of a sudden he has a big game against Alabama. Josiah pops in with a big game, you pop in with a big game is the ultimate glue guy we had him on last week. Kind of does a little bit of everything. Well, do you like this team? Because there are multiple options every night that could step up and beat another team.

Santiago Vescovi:
There's no doubt. I think first of all, I think we got to hang our heads on the defense keeping us where we at right now. Offense you can make or not make shots, but defense is pretty much based on air effort. So as long as you have that, I think you're going to be in good shape regardless of what happens offensively. But if on top of that you had a lot of weapons, we you were saying any given night, anybody can go off and

Austin Price:
Have a game and you mention Zaka. Yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
Literally any night somebody can have a game and go off, I think that plays to our advantage and I think the biggest thing of that, really thinking through it is how it's hard to scout for. If you're a team playing against us and you're like, all right, we're going to take out this guy, but then you have two other guys going off that night, then you're like, alright, we're going to adjust to that. We'll take this two guys out and then you have other two guys coming up. So I think that's where our success has came in the past games. So we're just going to keep doing what we do.

Austin Price:
Stick one in somebody's eye or a no look pass that leads to an assist. What gets you going more emotionally from a basketball? What's the

Santiago Vescovi:
First one?

Austin Price:
Just stick one in somebody's eye as far as knock down 20 foot or 25 footer in somebody's eye or a no look pass.

Santiago Vescovi:
I'd definitely say no look. Pass

Austin Price:
You like that, don't you? Yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
I think it

Austin Price:
Because it gets the crowd going a little

Santiago Vescovi:
More. It gets everybody going, gets me going.

Austin Price:
Especially if it ends in a dunk.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, definitely would be a no look pass. I don't know, it just gets more people involved in the play, creates a better environment and it gets everybody juiced up.

Austin Price:
What do you enjoy most about the game and has that transformed maybe from when you first got here, what you enjoy most to what you enjoy most now? Or is it still the same? I

Santiago Vescovi:
Guess it's still the same and it's always been the biggest thing right now it's my teammates. I think we've had, and that's really a compliment to the coaching staff. They've recruited great guys all throughout my career here. We've had great human groups and I can't even describe the chemistry that the guys have in the locker room for example, that at the end of the day we literally spend most of the day together whether it's in practice, watching film weights, working out, or just once you're done with everything just in the locker room hanging out. And I really can't describe the chemistry that the guys have in the locker room. We're a really, really tight group. And on the court I think it relates to on and off the court. You can see the guys, they all enjoy spending time together. We got some clowns in the group that always got the get everybody laughing. But yeah, I think that's the main thing that I look forward to just being around the guys and if I ever feel like I'm down in spirits or I had a bad day or something, they're always there to lift everybody up. I

Austin Price:
Look at you and you guys are like flies. You can't shake you and you just seem to get under the skin of opposing teams. You just defensively are just always around the ball and always just, I would call you annoying for an opposing team. You make it hard for them. How much do you relish that role? And I think for him as well,

Santiago Vescovi:
I would definitely throw Shaq in that category too. I think it's just a matter of, well, I could literally argue for pretty much every single one on our team. I

Austin Price:
Don't disagree, but when I see Maack, he's kind of always somewhat got of a smile on his face. You and Zaka more have that smirk, I'm getting to this guy. You know what I mean? It's like this sneaky grin out there

Santiago Vescovi:
And I could totally see that getting other teams mad or other players, but I really, really love playing with z. I think we have a great chemistry and it literally, there's times in the game where I literally just got to look at him and be like, Z, let's go. Let's turn it up right now. And he literally looks at me and I know we're both on the same page and that's where we turn it up and we've seen teams, I literally remember, I won't say player or team, but literally players that brought it up against us and there was literally players that would give the ball option, I don't want to bring it up. They tapped out, they're going to strip me off the ball and that just feed us even more. It's kind of like a shark. Once you smell blood, you want even more. So once you smell that fear in the opposing team, it's like, you know, got them. So it's just, I guess mental games that you play within the game that at the end of the day help you.

Austin Price:
Let's go back to that first game playing LSU. I think you made what, five threes?

Santiago Vescovi:
That's a long time ago. I think it was six

Austin Price:
Was a six. Okay.

Santiago Vescovi:
I think, I'm not sure

Austin Price:
You know better than I. Either way it was your first game and Tennessee fans are so loyal and you just made such an impact right out of the gate. What were you thinking? I mean, you know what I mean?

Santiago Vescovi:
Nothing.

Austin Price:
Could you hear them because sometimes you don't hear that stuff. You get in such a zone you're not and your family's here. What was that?

Santiago Vescovi:
Literally there's a couple of plays that I still remember from that first game. Literally it's the first game when I checked into the game. Well I started, but the first game, I guess the first wave that I had, the ball, I drove by somebody, I can't remember who it was, and I got to the lane and the lane fade, it felt so wide open. I was like, I'm here. I already drove by someone, I'm about to lay it up and I guess everything was in Slowmo and I was halfway through the paint and somebody stole the ball so they were going the other way. So that's when it kind of hit for real and I was like, oh, this is real. And that's one of the moments that it was a finding moment I guess. But then when I made the first couple threes, definitely hearing that the stadium go off, it gave me chills.
It meant a lot. And I was like, this is definitely the environment I want to play for the next two years and nothing. Just feeling the support from the fans through my four years, five now here. It's been great. So yeah, I mean you get to a point where I guess your brain that's in process anymore, how many people are there? And it still happens to this day where I'm like, if you're standing on the court, you don't even think about the people that are out there. But then if you stop and then you start counting how many people are in there, it's like whoa. A lot of people, a lot of people. But I guess just it's a mechanism. The brain does.

Austin Price:
Basketball's different than football. Football. The fans are, they can be on top of you but you're not seeing them so to speak. Whereas you have those front row fans down there, right there along the court. You got Jim Haslam, you got Larry Pratt down there after five years. Are there a fan or two that you're always like, they're the Browns, they're with you at every game. I mean are there people you look for now that you're like, Hey,

Santiago Vescovi:
Mr. Hassam, Mrs. Hassam, Ms. Definitely. So that I always see Chancellor Plowman. She's always down there too. Those are definitely people that I really appreciate just the way they are and I always look forward to seeing. But then me personally, I always like to mess around with the people around. I get it, you got to be locked into the game and I am. But if the ball goes out of bounds, I might talk with somebody that is set in courtside and I enjoy that kind of interaction and I do it all the time. So I'd say the main people is Mr. Mrs Hasam. They're always sitting there and it's always great to see them, but I just always interact with everyone that's around the court.

Austin Price:
When we had you out on the locker room last year, we talked about the ability to speak in a foreign language and be bilingual when you're frustrated and how much that helps you stay out of the T-zone for

Santiago Vescovi:
Sure.

Austin Price:
Have you gotten that going this year? Much.

Santiago Vescovi:
I think that's one of the things that I've kind of gone away from. I used to do it a lot and I guess just it's a guess maturing process, is that how you call it? Yeah. So it gets kind of a maturing process where you understand that that's going to get you nowhere and it doesn't really help to say those words, but every once in a while they kind of slip and it's a lot better to do in Spanish. I can say literally pretty much whatever I want and nobody understands,

Austin Price:
Knows. Yeah.

Santiago Vescovi:
So I can let some steam off that way and not get in trouble whether, if I would've said it in English, I would've probably not be in the court anymore.

Austin Price:
How hard is it to play for Coach Barnes and how much did you have to adapt to that coaching style? Because I mean he has certain expectations and if you don't live up to him, you end up over on the bench. So I mean how different was that?

Santiago Vescovi:
That's definitely one of the biggest adjustments for me that I have to make through college. Definitely Coach Barnes, it's a guy that it's really, really hard to play for, but once you kind of get it,

Austin Price:
It's great.

Santiago Vescovi:
It is great because mainly the things that he wants, it's some of that it's going to play their heart off. That's like a known negotiated thing. You got to have it or not. If you don't have it, you can't play for him. And just that he gets crazy with turnovers. That's one of the main things. I dunno how he put up with me my freshman year. I was averaging, he was

Austin Price:
Forced to. He had no point guards.

Santiago Vescovi:
I know I was averaging like 10 turnovers a game, but so be it.

Austin Price:
He didn't even have a guy like Jamiah who can do a little bit of everything to come in and play when the Z got hurt last year.

Santiago Vescovi:
But yeah, just playing hard I think is the main thing for him. And you could really enjoy playing for a coach that's been around for that many years and has been in the business, has seen a lot, definitely has a lot of experience. I think it turns into a great thing to do. Really enjoyable to play for him as long as you're doing those things. Mainly it's playing hard.

Austin Price:
All right, so I teased this with him when we were in the elevator coming up. I said, I've got a question for you and it's a lighthearted question, but Kobe Bryant had his two careers. He had the number eight career and then he had the number 24 career. You didn't change numbers, but you had the Vesco career and the Vesco career because had everybody change how you say your name about halfway through, so which career was better? Vesco or Vesco V?

Santiago Vescovi:
Do not get me started with that. First of all, to be honest, I still don't know how that became such a big deal and everybody was talking about it. I really don't care how they call me. To me, if you really ask me, Vesco is the way in Spanish. SCOBY is the way English people would say it and I even loved it. I liked the way SCO sounds in English.

Austin Price:
JG was the same way in football. He was guano for the first X amount of years, then he became guano, which is hard. I don't really care, but it's what you say, a certain number, a certain way for so long it's hard to be like, oh yeah, they want to be known as this now. Well,

Santiago Vescovi:
And that's the thing. There might be people which it really bothers them and they're like, well my last name is X, Y, or Z, so I want to be called this way. Sure,

Austin Price:
I get it,

Santiago Vescovi:
But I really don't care. I don't know how this became such a big deal,

Austin Price:
But again, which career was better or Vesco,

Santiago Vescovi:
When's that turning point?

Austin Price:
I don't remember when it was

Santiago Vescovi:
UNC game. I know when it became a thing. It was a UNC game. It was two years ago and we lost to Nova and then we beat UNC, so I remember it was right there.

Austin Price:
It was the commentator, right? Was it Jimmy

Santiago Vescovi:
Dykes? No, it wasn't Jimmy. Who was it? Somebody else that

Austin Price:
Was a friend for Sheila. That's who it was. Which Fran loves the Europeans. He would know if anybody knows how to say a European's name or even though I know you're not from Europe, but I mean, you know what I'm saying? Anybody that foreigner's name, it's going to be him. He is the one that s ESPN has on the draft and they're like, oh, let's go to Fran with this guy from

Santiago Vescovi:
Whatever. Yeah, I really can't think of whether before or after the one thing I could say,

Austin Price:
I'm going to tell you it's going to be Scoby because I think you're going to make a run this year and you're like the end plus.

Santiago Vescovi:
Well so far I was going to say definitely had to have been scoby. We got the SC tournament, the SC tournament, which was a great time. But to your point, yes, I'd say Bisco because this year we're going to make a run and it's going to be a lot more fun too.

Austin Price:
See, I thought you would've fun with this question. So Jordan or LeBron,

Santiago Vescovi:
I guess it's the same answer most people would have. I've seen LeBron play. I haven't seen Jordan play. I wasn't born when he was at his prime and everything. I heard a lot about him, but I can't really.

Austin Price:
Yeah, and it's hard to speak on if you weren't there. You YouTube clips

Santiago Vescovi:
Can't compare them. So I got to go with the LeBron just because I'm pretty much the

Austin Price:
Prisoner of the era.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, that's the main thing. Yeah, I didn't see Michael Jordan play, but I guess just the stories I heard about him too were really, really

Austin Price:
Who's your favorite player to watch of all time? Take Jordan. LeBron off the table. Just like if I said pull up your favorite player on YouTube, who are you pulling up?

Santiago Vescovi:
Definitely be man. Ginobili.

Austin Price:
And you get the natural comparisons, right? I mean that's the

Santiago Vescovi:
Lefthander for being left-handed. Yeah.

Austin Price:
Yeah. And just even how you move without the ball, with the ball, euro step, all that stuff. The movements are similar

Santiago Vescovi:
To a certain point. Yeah,

Austin Price:
Yeah. Different body size. Yeah, but what about a guy like Larry Bird? Did you ever watch a Larry Bird?

Santiago Vescovi:
Just clips? Not much about him, but yeah, it's the same thing. I couldn't really watch him

Austin Price:
Draws in Petrovich. Do you know who that is?

Santiago Vescovi:
Great player. But still it's kind of the same thing. That kind of old era. It's hard to watch other than it is

Austin Price:
Not hard to watch. Come on now. No,

Santiago Vescovi:
Not hard to watch. I'm saying you don't come across their stuff all the time.

Austin Price:
Sure. Well you're sure not going to. You have to go literally go find draws and pet. But you can find Larry Bird clips on reels on YouTube or on Instagram,

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah.

Austin Price:
Dealt lift shrimp. No,

Santiago Vescovi:
No idea.

Austin Price:
We was just talking nineties basketball. We was going to pull up that nineties basketball

Santiago Vescovi:
Stuff. Well, the problem too

Austin Price:
Is I know you're not that old, but Jamiah Sach's in here last week and talking about all these guys.

Santiago Vescovi:
Well, but he's a lot, first

Austin Price:
Of all, I know he is from the us.

Santiago Vescovi:
He's from the US and he likes to watch that. All basketball too.

Austin Price:
Favorite sport, is it soccer besides basketball?

Santiago Vescovi:
I can name a bunch

Austin Price:
Tennis.

Santiago Vescovi:
Tennis is up there. It'll definitely be soccer and volleyball right underneath basketball. Do you

Austin Price:
Like to play these things recreationally?

Santiago Vescovi:
Yes. I used to play 'em when I was growing up. I played a lot of different sports and I really wish I could still play them. I really, really enjoy all of 'em. Soccer, volleyball, tennis, ping pong. And then the latest guess add to the list is golf.

Austin Price:
Oh, I did hear about this. You've taken up golf now. Jamiah says he's starting to pick it up a little bit.

Santiago Vescovi:
I have not seen Jamiah play golf.

Austin Price:
Well, he claims he has, so I can't

Santiago Vescovi:
Speak on it. But yeah, latest edition was golf.

Austin Price:
Yeah, because I think it was Josiah that talked about that two weeks ago that you had taken up golf. He was talking about your golf and then of course your fiance or soon to be fiance. At least that's what he says. Win

Santiago Vescovi:
Quick. No pressure on it, right? No

Austin Price:
Pressure. You left-handed in golf.

Santiago Vescovi:
I am.

Austin Price:
Okay. Well, I mean I hit a baseball. I hit a golf ball, right-handed one of, so I didn't know Phil Mickelson technically throws football or a baseball with his right hand, but he still plays left-handed golf. So I didn't know if you were ambidextrous or

Santiago Vescovi:
What. I guess I still got time to maybe try my life handed is kind of know better. I'm going nowhere with my life handed in golf itself. Might as well start with it right now.

Austin Price:
You go way down to the home country. I'd say there's golf all year round. The weather stays good enough. No,

Santiago Vescovi:
Back at home. It's kind of similar to here. Doesn't snow? That's one of the biggest differences.

Austin Price:
How cold does it get?

Santiago Vescovi:
You're killing me because all I know is Celsius. So I couldn't really tell you in Fahrenheit, but

Austin Price:
How hard was that part of it? The adjustment? When people start saying it's going to be 32,

Santiago Vescovi:
I always go back to my phone and check. I just, they'd be like, it's going to be 32. And I'm like, I don't dunno what I mean. I know it's cold, but I can't tell you how much it's going to be.

Austin Price:
So when we had the big snow in the last couple of weeks and it's the most snow that East Tennessee seen in 30 years, how much fun did you have? Or was it like, okay, I'm over this. Was it fun? For me, it was like, I've got kids at home. So it was fun the first few days sledding with them, but then it became okay, enough of this ice and snow.

Santiago Vescovi:
Well, I had one of my friends from back home being here little when that happened. Oh,

Austin Price:
I bet you they thought it was great.

Santiago Vescovi:
Oh, they thought it was great. So I was little telling. I was like, since I've been here it's probably snowed like this maybe once and it was not even close to what it's known right now. And it was just so fun from just going to the gym. It was an adventure with a car, but it was so fun from the icy roads and stuff to sledding was really fun too. We had a couple of big hills that we found. It was great. A little dangerous and risky, but it was definitely gritting.

Austin Price:
One of those things where you don't tell Coach Barnes you did it.

Santiago Vescovi:
Exactly. Yeah.

Austin Price:
You like bundled up, making sure you is like, if I fall off, I'm going to be like wrapped in bubble wrap.

Santiago Vescovi:
I should have. I

Austin Price:
Should have. It's one of those things you ask for forgiveness, not permission.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Austin Price:
Yes. Did the girlfriend, was she sledding too?

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, she came with us too. She's from Ohio, so she's more used to snow

Austin Price:
Than I am. She used to snow. Yeah. Where at? In Ohio?

Santiago Vescovi:
It's called Medina. Kind of close to Cleveland. Yep.

Austin Price:
So northeast Ohio. Yes, sure,

Santiago Vescovi:
Yes.

Austin Price:
Does that make her, does she like all the Cleveland sports teams, like the Browns, the Cavs?

Santiago Vescovi:
She was a fan of the Cavs and then I guess she kind of is a fan of the Browns, but she doesn't really watch much.

Austin Price:
Gotcha. She went to school here. Yeah. And you met her. How did we ask this girl out? Did she ask you out? Is that the story we're going

Santiago Vescovi:
With? No, no, no, no. I was the one. I was the first one. It all started on Instagram with a dm, but

Austin Price:
He slid into the dms. I did

Santiago Vescovi:
Look

Austin Price:
At you Casanova.

Santiago Vescovi:
We had a class together. It's called Ball Leaders.

Austin Price:
Yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
Great class really. We had a lot of things.

Austin Price:
Is that when you were in there playing hacky sack in the indoor?

Santiago Vescovi:
Probably It was.

Austin Price:
You hacked and next thing you know you were taking her to dinner.

Santiago Vescovi:
But yeah, pretty much had that class together. Kind of got to know each other a lot more. And yeah, pretty much right after that we started dating.

Austin Price:
The one thing that struck me, struck me earlier in the conversation was that you can see yourself living here. Once basketball's done.

Santiago Vescovi:
When I said I could see myself leaving, I was talking about more freshman year, me, I could have seen myself living during college. But even with that, I really liked Knoxville as a city. And that's something I tell everyone that to me it's got the right speed.

Austin Price:
It's just big enough, but not too big.

Santiago Vescovi:
Exactly. I grew up in a city, it's where I'm from. It's like a really small city, but it's packed with people. It's kind of like a New York, but way smaller. But the amount of madness every day, traffic, people rushing everywhere. It's kind of the same thing. And not moving here, it's a lot more calm, but it's still a place where you're not going to get bored. There's still enough things to do and enough people to be around, but at the same time, it's a lot more slower I guess, than a real city

Austin Price:
Favorite part of Knoxville is where? Ooh,

Santiago Vescovi:
That's a good question.

Austin Price:
Metro five years I would say you've seen just about anywhere in Knoxville. I can't imagine you're just confined to South Knoxville going across the river.

Santiago Vescovi:
Well, that's the thing. Depends a lot on the weather. I'd say if it's like summer, I think South Knoxville has a lot of things to do, has a lot of outside activities from quarry to mountain biking to anything being out and where else. I really like Sequoia. That's one place,

Austin Price:
Especially springtime.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, I really, me and one of my friends, he's from Uruguay, he's starting here. We drink this tea called People Make Fun of me when they see me carrying it around. It is just fun looking I guess for people here. But we literally go and sit in the Sequoia right next to the river where they have a big park. It's just a long park that goes along the river with litter would just go and sit in one of those banks and just talk. And

Austin Price:
Right across from the golf practice facility, that's what you need to be doing is going to see the golf coach and going to practice over at the golf practice facility?

Santiago Vescovi:
No, it's not across from the,

Austin Price:
Oh yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
Golf facility. The

Austin Price:
Park. Yeah, the park right across from it.

Santiago Vescovi:
No way. Well, yeah, but I'm talking way before that. I know what you're saying. Yeah. On this side of the river way before.

Austin Price:
Oh no, it's just across the river. Yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, yeah. Now I'm putting it together. I actually, I was there, been out there a couple times. One of my friends used to play here, he transferred, his name is Trent Johnson.

Austin Price:
Trent Johnson, yeah.

Santiago Vescovi:
Love Trent.

Austin Price:
Brentwood.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah. And we actually went out a couple times. This was even before I even got into it and he ended up having a teammate, which is Lefty, so

Austin Price:
Bryce Lewis.

Santiago Vescovi:
It was Bryce. So I used this old clubs at that point, hit a couple balls and I sucked. I promise you I can show you those videos and you would,

Austin Price:
Yeah, his clubs are not going to be set up for you. They're going to be well.

Santiago Vescovi:
But even with that, I couldn't even hit the ball. I couldn't even hit the ball to save my life. And we went out there and it was just awful. I had a lot of fun, but it looked terrible. And now Trent literally came and visited a couple times and we've been talking about golf and stuff and it's been really fun. Has it

Austin Price:
Hit you? We've got about two months left in this thing.

Santiago Vescovi:
No, not

Austin Price:
Yet. I mean, I talked about this with Josiah two weeks ago. You go through senior day last year and you have to kind of go through it from a standpoint of this is it knowing that it might not be because you've got this extra year if you want it, right. Do you think it will be, you don't seem like an emotional guy and neither does he for that matter, but even he said this one could be more emotional because there is finality with this

Santiago Vescovi:
Could be very emotional. That's one thing. But I guess with the amount of years, and I've been moving from place to place pretty much for a long time now. So it

Austin Price:
You've got more roots here now.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah, that experience have taught me a lot too, in terms of how to deal with the situations. So last year for example, I wasn't sad at all. I was like, if it's meant for it to be my last year, I had a great time here. Let's see what the future has ahead and then if not, I'll have another year here. And knowing that I had that possibility definitely helped me to be more calm about it. This year still hasn't hit me.

Austin Price:
Too much work left to be done. Yeah,

Santiago Vescovi:
Literally. We're still full ongoing right now, so there's really no room to think like, oh, we're almost done, or this or that. So yeah, just focus on the season right now and see where it takes us.

Austin Price:
How much is the family in with this last go around?

Santiago Vescovi:
They have not been yet. They actually planned a trip. They're going to come here in March I think.

Austin Price:
So they'll be here for senior day all the way through the SC tournament and

Santiago Vescovi:
Pretty much, yeah.

Austin Price:
Anything else?

Santiago Vescovi:
Try to be somewhere around that. Literally, I think his last three games and maybe the SC tournament.

Austin Price:
How hard is the SEC tournament?

Santiago Vescovi:
It's definitely hard tournament to play in, but I think it's really fun. I really, really like the vibe of DSEC tournament for some reason

Austin Price:
Because of the fans.

Santiago Vescovi:
Yeah. First of all, it seems that you have already played, so it's kind like everyone, there's multiple games playing the same arena, so there's fans from all over, from different teams and I don't know, it's just really a fun vibe.

Austin Price:
I'm not going to ask you who you don't like to play against, but what player, player or team kind of get you going? You're like, I really, you enjoy competing against said player or team

Santiago Vescovi:
For some reason. Definitely Kansas. Every time we play them, I think it's really fun. It's really fun to compete against them and they have a great team of course, but it's just a fun team to play against. And I mean from our league, I would definitely say Kentucky would be probably the biggest one, just in terms of rivalry that we have going on back and forth. That's the biggest one. So it would definitely be that one.

Austin Price:
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Kentucky's just a fun one to whether it's here or there, it's that border war. It's that border war. Well Santi man, we appreciate you coming on the show. And I know I speak for a lot of Tennessee fans. We appreciate the five years you put in here and you keep getting that little smirk when you get under the skin of those opposing teams. Still

Santiago Vescovi:
Got a lot more to do.

Austin Price:
Yeah, a little over a month until mom and dad and the family members come to town and watch you play the end of a spectacular career. He closes in on number two on the all time three point list. Congratulations.

Santiago Vescovi:
Thank you very much.