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.
Jameson Rodgers is getting married this year to his fiancée Sarah, and while there’s a lot of planning to be done…in the end, he thinks he just kind of has to show up.
Jameson shares how the wedding planning is going…
Between now the wedding Jameson also has to plan to host a bunch of concert dates…
We’re sure that one of those million little things that Jameson has to do for the wedding is making sure there’s plenty of cold ones for the guests.
Jameson is climbing the country airplay charts with Luke Combs and “Cold Beer Calling My Name”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello announced on Saturday that VFL Richard Jackson will take over the role of volunteer assistant coach after spending the previous two seasons as a student assistant coach for the Volunteers.
Jackson will take the place of former volunteer assistant Ross Kivett, who recently accepted a full-time assistant coaching position at the University of Houston.
“The secret sauce, if any, to our program is that we have some of the best assistant coaches and support personnel in college baseball,” Vitello said. “It has become a routine for those folks to receive outside offers since we have been in Knoxville.
“Due to NCAA limits on two paid assistants in baseball, the one thing we can’t offer Ross right now is a full-time position with benefits. Houston could do that. We are happy to see one Vol rewarded for his efforts and success. We are equally excited to see another Vol move up to fill in the void left behind.”
During the last two seasons as a student assistant coach, Jackson worked closely with pitching coach Frank Anderson to develop one of the country’s top pitching staffs.
This past season, Tennessee’s pitching staff ranked in the top 10 nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2nd – 3.63), walks allowed/nine innings (3rd – 2.49), WHIP (5th – 1.16) and ERA (10th – 3.51) as the Big Orange won 50 games for just the third time in program history and advanced to the College World Series for the first time since 2005.
During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Vols ranked among the top 25 in the nation in a handful of statistical categories, including: WHIP (0.94 – second), ERA (2.00 – fourth), hits allowed/nine innings (6.41 – 16th), shutouts (three – 12th), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.89 – third) and walks allowed/nine innings (2.06 – third).
Prior to joining Vitello’s staff as a student assistant, Jackson was a pitcher for the Vols from 2015-19. Under the guidance of Anderson, Jackson completely changed his delivery prior to the 2019 season and had a breakout campaign in which he helped lead the Big Orange to the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2005.
The Atlanta native went 1-0 and posted careers bests in ERA (1.40), appearances (21), innings pitched (19.1) and strikeouts (21) while holding opponents to a .119 batting average. In his final outing with UT, Jackson threw 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit while tying a career high with four strikeouts against No. 14 North Carolina in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional.
In his new role, Jackson will also coordinate and oversee Tennessee’s year-round baseball camps.
Chris and Kate Malveaux – UT Softball / Credit: UT Athletics
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On Friday, Tennessee softball head coach Karen Weekly announced the addition of Chris and Kate Malveaux to the Lady Vols’ coaching staff.
“I feel like we hit a bottom of the 7th game-winning grand slam with the hire of Chris & Kate Malveaux,” Weekly said. “Both are students of the game and exceptional teachers. Chris is one of the best and most innovative hitting coaches in college softball. Kate is an excellent catching instructor and has also spent extensive time coaching hitting during her career. Most important, they are high quality people who will bring passion and energy to work every day. They share our goal of winning and bringing championships to the Lady Vols. It’s a great day for UT Softball.”
Chris Malveaux, a Houston, Texas, native has spent the past three seasons at Missouri as an assistant coach and two years as an associate head coach. During his three seasons in Columbia, the Missouri offense improved each year – hitting .284 in 2019, .290 in the COVID shortened 2020 season and jumping up to .320 in 2021.
This past season, the Tigers .320 batting average ranked second in the Southeastern Conference. The Mizzou squad finished the 2021 season with 91 home runs, 382 runs scored and 184 extra base hits.
Championed as one of the nation’s best hitting coaches, in 2019 Mizzou’s Brooke Wilmes was named to the All-SEC first team, as well as NFCA Second Team All-Southeast Region, in her first year under Chris Malveaux. Then freshman Jazymn Rollin was a Top 25 finalist for the NFCA/Schutt Sports Freshman of the Year that same season.
Prior to joining Missouri, Chris Malveaux was the video coordinator at Kansas in 2018 and served as the associate head coach at Louisiana from 2016-17 – it was his second stay with the Ragin’ Cajuns as he was an assistant coach with ULL from 2009-11.
The 2010 Louisiana staff was selected as the NFCA South Region Coaching Staff of the Year after compiling a 45-18 record, making an NCAA Super Regional appearance and No. 16 national ranking. In his five combined seasons at Louisiana, Malveaux was a member of five Sun Belt Conference and Tournament Championships, five NCAA Regionals and two NCAA Super Regional bids.
Chris Malveaux served as an assistant coach at Bradley from 2012-15 and was the head coach at McNeese State from 2005-08 after being promoted from assistant coach, a title he held at McNeese from 2002-04.
Chris Malveaux is a 2001 graduate from Texas A&M and will serve as Tennessee’s assistant/hitting coach.
“We are so very fortunate to have this opportunity to be a part of Rocky Top,” Chris Malveaux said. “Thank you to the Weekly’s for trusting us to be a part of this historic program. Ralph and Karen have made such a tremendous impact in the world of softball. It’s truly an honor to have their trust in not just continuing, but building onto its success. We can’t wait to get in and get to work in helping bring Tennessee back to the Women’s College World Series.”
Kate Malveaux, formerly Kate Singler, will also join the staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Kate Malveaux was on the Missouri softball staff the last two seasons as its director of operations.
“This is such an exciting time for Lady Vols softball, and we are so grateful for this opportunity to be a part of such an iconic program and university,” Kate Malveaux said. “I am humbled to join Karen’s staff and am grateful for her vision of how Chris and I can help take this program to the next level.
“I am beyond thrilled to get back on the field and am honored to do so in orange and white. This is a program that’s so rich in tradition and they are fierce competitors. With the groundwork laid by Karen and the strong commitment of women’s athletics at Tennessee, the sky is the limit for this group.”
A standout softball player at Bradley, Kate Malveaux served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Braves in 2012. As a player, she was a second-team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection and a first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete. Kate Malveaux also earned First-Team Capital One Academic All-District V honors her senior season.
In her junior and senior seasons, she led Bradley in RBIs back-to-back years, becoming just the fifth player in program history to do so.
Lady A‘s What A Song Can Do (Chapter One) is available now!
Talking about the new collection of music, which includes their current single “Like A Lady” – Hillary Scott says, “I think it’s a continuation of what we really tried to step into on the last record…of just going back to what feels the most authentic to us. The songs that we really gravitated towards and would say are kind of the most pillars of who we are as a band from the very beginning and that this album is a very present continuation of that.”
What A Song Can Do (Chapter One) contains 7 songs, with another Chapter coming later this year.
When it comes to this new “Chapters” style of releasing music, Dave Haywood says “We’ve been doing this 15-years…putting out records traditionally every time. I think we’re looking for ways to, just kind of mix it up and let the fans have…sort of different moments.”
Bandmate Charles Kelley the experience he thinks fans will have with their new album, “I think they’ll dig in more to each chapter more. I feel like if you give someone 7 songs – they’re really going to dig in and sometimes it’s tough for them after about 6, 7, 8, songs – you’re like “Ok”
Hillary adds, “In years past, we feel like we’ve put so many songs on a full-length album – which this one will be considered a full-length album when the second chapter is released later in the Fall, but everybody is going to listen and find their favorite songs, but to me this gives you a way to really highlight and spotlight all 7 for what they are, and what they say and what they bring to this project.”
“Like A Lady” is one of the 7 tracks on What A Song Can Do (Chapter One)
Tennessee basketball freshman Kennedy Chandler has made the 12-man roster for the 2021 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team.
Chandler now will travel with Team USA from Fort Worth, Texas—site of the U.S. training camp—to Latvia, where the FIBA U19 World Cup will be contested from July 3-11.
Rated by ESPN as the nation’s top point guard in the Class of 2021, Chandler earned All-America honors from McDonald’s Spalding and Sports Illustrated after leading Sunrise Christian Academy (Kan.) to the championship game of the prestigious GEICO Nationals tournament in April.
He enrolled at Tennessee and began practicing with the Vols earlier this month before departing to compete for a spot on the U19 World Cup Team.
Chandler is one of six incoming college freshmen to make the roster, which also includes Patrick Baldwin Jr. (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin), Caleb Furst (Purdue), Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga), Harrison Ingram (Stanford), Jaden Ivey (Purdue), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Kenneth Lofton Jr. (Louisiana Tech), Mike Miles (TCU), Adam Miller (LSU) and Peyton Watson (UCLA).
The 2021 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team is led by TCU head coach Jamie Dixon with Stanford head coach Jerod Haase and Yale head coach James Jones rounding out the staff as assistant coaches.
In addition to the USA and host Latvia, teams that will take part in the men’s U19 World Cup include Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, Lithuania, Mali, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.
The USA was drawn into Group D, alongside Australia, Mali and Turkey for the July 3-6 FIBA U19 World Cup preliminary round. The USA will open play against Turkey on July 3, followed by Mali on July 4 and close preliminary play against Australia on July 6.
Reigning FIBA U19 World Cup gold medalist, USA men’s teams have won seven gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal while compiling an 98-14 overall record in U19 World Cup play since the event was launched in 1979. Even more impressive, the USA has won four of the past six U19 golds since 2009.
Another current Vol, rising junior Josiah-Jordan James, has experience winning international gold with USA Basketball. James was a member of the United States’ gold-medal-winning team at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
Brian Kelley is no stranger to country music fans – for years now he’s been a part of the wildly successful duo Florida Georgia Line.
But now, Brian is releasing his own album, Sunshine State Of Mind – Season One, which arrives is available now!
The collection of music includes 17 tracks!
Brian shares that he was on a creative roll and had even more songs ready to go, but he had to cap the album at some point, “I had to cut it off at some point, there’s probably 4, 5, 6 more songs that probably truly live on that project…maybe I’ll do a deluxe or something and add’em, but 17 felt like a good stopping point and felt like a great collection.”
One of the tracks on the album also shares a nickname that he’s adopted over the years – “Beach Cowboy.” Brian says that it’s not just a song…or a nickname…but it’s a way of thinking…“’Beach Cowboy’ is one of my favorite songs on the album. It’s a state of mind…it’s a way of life. Whether you’re at the beach or not, you can take a little sunshine with ya wherever you go.”
It’s been a long wait for Gary Allan fans – but his new album Ruthless is available now!
His last full-length album, Set You Free, came out in 2013, and Gary says it was never his intention to have it be this long between projects, “I don’t think that I thought that I was gonna take eight years to do this. Each project that I did in those eight years, I thought was gonna be released. So, the good part about it was I had so much material to go over to make this album, and because I had so much time, I cut 28 tracks. I usually cut 13 tracks to pick 10, so to cut 28 tracks and then reduce that down to 13, I think really made for a strong album. Not that I’d really want to do every album this way, but it really made for a strong album. I’m excited for everybody to hear it.”
Ruthless track listing:
1. “Temptation” (Written by Nicolle Galyon, Chase McGill and Jon Nite) 2. “Waste Of A Whiskey Drink” (Written by Josh Kear, Michael Hardy and Mark Holman)
3. “Till It Felt Like You”* (Written by Kyle Jacobs, Joe Leathers and Matt Warren)
4. “Slide” (Written by Ross Ellis, Alex Kline and Michael Whitworth)
5. “Pretty Damn Close”* (Written by Gary Allan, Sarah Buxton, Rodney Clawson and Matt Warren)
6. “High As I’ve Ever Been”* (Written by Matt Warren, James Slater and Skip Black)
7. “What I Can’t Talk About”* (Written by Jim Beavers, Lindsay Rimes and Matt Rogers)
8. “SEX” (Written by Nicolle Galyon, Shane McAnally and Matt Jenkins)
9. “Trouble Knows Trouble” (Written by Steve Bogard, Jason Sever and John Edwards)
10. “Ruthless” (Written by Hillary Lindsey, busbee and Ryan Hurd)
11. “Unfiltered”** (Written by Blair Daly, Brad Warren and Brett Warren)
12. “Little Glass Of Wine”* (Written by Jesse Winchester)
13. “The Hard Way”* (Written by Matt Warren and Carey Ott)
Produced by Mark Wright and Tony Brown
*Produced by Gary Allan and Greg Droman
**Produced by Jay Joyce
And when it comes to the album’s title, Gary shares, “You always roll through all of your titles on the album, and to me, I always just try to pick what looks best on the shelf. So to me, Gary Allan Ruthless, it looks like a good title. And it’s been a long time coming. I’m so excited for everybody to hear this.”
“Temptation” is the lead track for Ruthless that is out now
