Tennessee junior guard Santiago Vescovi has made Uruguay’s 12-man Olympic qualifying team and is set to begin qualifying competition in Victoria, Canada on Tuesday.

After having previously been named to the initial 16-man roster, Vescovi made the cut for the finalized 12-man roster after having practiced in Uruguay with the team for the past two weeks.

Vescovi and Uruguay will now contending for a spot in the Tokyo Olympics field through competing in the Victoria FIBA Qualifying Tournament, which begins Tuesday and runs through July 4.

The members of Uruguay’s 12-man roster are set to begin competition in group stage games against Turkey and Czech Republic on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, before advancing to a bracket stage that will also include two of Greece, China and Canada. The winner of the bracket stage will earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to run from July 23 through August 8.

Overall, 12 countries qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup produced seven of those qualifying teams, and Japan received an automatic bid as the event’s hosts. The remaining four spots in the field are reserved for the winners of the four different FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournaments.

After joining the Tennessee program midway through the 2019-20 season, Vescovi has been a key contributor for the Volunteers for one and a half seasons. The Montevideo, Uruguay, native has started 42 of his 46 games as a Vol and owns a career average of 9.5 points per game. Last season, Vescovi led Tennessee in minutes and assists per game, while his 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio also led the team and was second among all SEC players.

-UT Athletics