Villanova will be without injured guard Justin Moore when the Wildcats meet Kansas in a national semifinal game in New Orleans Saturday. Moore, who leads Villanova in minutes and is second in scoring, tore his Achilles tendon with 35 seconds left in a regional final victory over Houston. He had successful surgery Monday morning. Losing a star player to injury is nothing new to coach Jay Wright’s team. Last year it was point guard Collin Gillespie. Here is my story on Gillespie’s comeback from Big East Conference media day in October. This story originally appeared on Blue Ribbon Report.
By Ken Davis
NEW YORK – There’s no way this was part of Collin Gillespie’s original plan.
His agenda did not include a stop at Madison Square Garden in mid-October to answer questions regarding his selection as 2021-22 Big East preseason player of the year at the conference’s annual media day event. That 2021 date had not been circled on his calendar at the start of his Villanova career.
Yet, there he was, sitting at midcourt and chatting with reporters. Behind him, the giant message board sparkled with his image in a Villanova uniform, advertising him as the best player in one of college basketball’s elite leagues.
Funny how a season-ending injury can change everything. If Gillespie hadn’t torn the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on March 3, he wouldn’t have opted to return for another year at Villanova. If the pandemic hadn’t prompted the NCAA to open the door for the bonus of a fifth year in college, Gillespie likely would have been beginning his professional career in the NBA or elsewhere.
Now, every Villanova opponent realizes the scouting report includes Gillespie once again. And he seems destined to create more headaches for the rest of the Big East.
“The rule was a blessing in disguise,” Gillespie says. “I’m super excited to be back and ready to get back on the floor again and play with these guys.”
Gillespie, a 6-foot-3 point guard, is the guy expected to have a plan. He has evolved as Villanova’s team leader, the coach on the floor, and the person who has the playbook memorized cover-to-cover. It speaks volumes that the Big East coaches respect him so much that they picked him to lead the Wildcats to the regular-season conference championship, even coming off such a serious injury.
Villanova point guard Collin Gillespie was sidelined by injury in the 2021 NCAA tournament (Ken Davis photo)
The fact that fifth-year forward Jermaine Samuels, a teammate with Gillespie on Villanova’s 2018 national championship team, also returns makes the Wildcats an even more formidable foe.
“I had the opportunity to coach Collin and Jermaine in the [2019] Pan Am Games in Peru,” Providence coach Ed Cooley says. “I’m really proud of them. Number one, they’re graduates. The fact we’ve got to play against them, I’m pissed because they’re really good and I’ve got to compete against [Villanova coach] Jay [Wright] again.”
Gillespie tore his MCL in the first half of Villanova’s 72-60 victory over Creighton that clinched the Big East regular-season title. He was averaging 14 points a game and his 2.88 assist-to-turnover ratio (ranked 17th in Division I) had the Wildcats on course for another impressive run through the postseason.
But his senior season ended with him grabbing his left knee and writhing in pain on the court. He was helped to the locker room and was relegated to a support role on the Villanova bench for the remainder of the season.
“I thought it was something serious,” Gillespie says of the moment the injury happened. “I heard it and I also felt it when I was standing up and walking around. My knee was a little wobbly. I knew kind of right away.
“It was brutal. It was Senior Night and my parents were there for the first time that year because of COVID. It was rough. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself. There are other things going on, that are happening in the world, that are rough. I’m not the only person that was going through something at the time. I just wanted to support [my teammates] in any way I could before they left for the [NCAA] bubble.”
Without Gillespie, Villanova lost its regular-season finale at Providence and was upset by Georgetown in the Big East tournament. Coach Jay Wright made adjustments that enabled Villanova to defeat Winthrop and North Texas to reach the Sweet 16, but the NCAA appearance ended with a 62-51 loss to eventual national champion Baylor.
Gillespie’s wisdom, experience and encouragement certainly had to be helpful to the Villanova cause. But it was nothing compared to what he can do on the court.
“He’s very poised,” Connecticut forward Isaiah Whaley says. “He knows the game. He’s a very, very smart player. He plays at his own pace and that’s what separates him from a lot of other guards.”
Gillespie hated watching from the bench. His surgery took place within a week of the injury but Gillespie said it took more time than that for him to realize he would be returning to Villanova as a super senior.
Rehab took more than four months and he was finally cleared to return to basketball action on Aug. 24. Gillespie’s teammates, Wright, and the Villanova staff have been impressed by his transition back to playing shape.
“The man Is like a robot,” says Samuels, who had finger surgery during the offseason. “As soon as he got a chance to get back on the court, it was all business. It was relieving, especially after seeing [the injury] first hand and watching the recovery. When it initially happened, I went numb. It took me a while to grasp it. My best friend, my brother wasn’t on the court with me.”
Samuels and Gillespie have had a strong bond since they first bumped into each other on the Villanova campus. Gillespie immediately drove Samuels to a Target store so that he could buy a television. They finished their freshman year at the Final Four. Both got on the court in Villanova’s 95-79 semifinal rout of Kansas, then Gillespie had four points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal in 16 minutes against Michigan in the 79-62 national championship victory.
“We’re allowed to have one head coach and three assistants on the floor,” UConn coach Dan Hurley says. “When you watch [Villanova] play and they have someone like Collin Gillespie, they’ve got Jay, three assistants, and then they’ve got a player/coach.
“It’s uncanny the way he manages that group in huddles, after every play how engaged he is in his teammates and setting up the next offensive and defensive possession. He’s talking about attitude. Most players are so wrapped up in themselves nowadays that they’re pouting or celebrating with the crowd.”
Gillespie said he felt he was on the right recovery timetable every step of the way and he suffered no setbacks. Even so, this was the first major surgery of his career. Broken noses, wrist injuries, and a fractured bone in his left that sidelined him for nine games as a freshman did not prepare him for what he needed to do this time around.
When he was cleared to return to the court, Gillespie discovered the recovery was more than just physical. He played with a brace until early October, then transitioned to a sleeve on his knee. But there are other battles for a player coming off major surgery.
“It’s definitely a mental thing, just having confidence that you’re strong and you’re back healthy” Gillespie says. “You are playing with a brace and then you are taking it off. You’ve got to readjust to playing with the brace and readjust your mind to know you’re healthy. . . . Once I got hit the first time, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m good.’ ”
Villanova coach Jay Wright must adjust his lineup for Saturday’s semifinal against Kansas (Ken Davis photo)
Wright didn’t spend much time on the Villanova campus this summer. His role as an assistant coach at the Olympics kept him away. When he returned he was later inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. That kept Wright from having eyes on Gillespie during rehab, a time when coaches tend to be very concerned.
“The good thing was I wasn’t around a lot for the summer,” Wright says. “I didn’t see the gradual, painful re-entry which is usually the worst. When I came back, I was like, “Wow, he looks exactly the same.’ That was a blessing for me. He went through it. I didn’t.
“It’s a coach’s dream, to have fifth-year guys – especially guys like these two. We were lucky. I think both of them were in a good position to further their careers in professional basketball the next year. We were lucky, they weren’t. They didn’t want to start their NBA careers coming off an injury. And they were smart about it. They’re taking advantage of it and pursing master’s degrees. They are great leaders and really working on their games.”
Hurley and Cooley are just as proud to have Gillespie back in the Big East. Both said they want the Big East to be as good as it can be. Gillespie has brought that quality to the conference. And they felt for him when his season ended prematurely.
“It hurts your heart,” Cooley says “Any time you see a young man or woman in sports go down, you know, you hurt for them. You know what it’s like, as an individual and from a team perspective.”
All of that is in the past now. Gillespie is looking forward to a proper finish this time around. Perhaps things didn’t go as planned, but he has been given another chance.
“This is my journey and it’s God’s plan for me,” Gillespie said. “I just had to believe that I was going to come out the other side and I was going to be fine.”
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