Gillespie helping ’Nova work through his absence
Collin Gillespie was at practice Friday morning, one day after learning his season was over due to a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee. That quickly, his role had changed.
Instead of leading the 10thranked Wildcats (16-4 overall,
11-3 Big East) on the court as a senior point guard and co-captain, which Gillespie had done since he became a starter as a sophomore, he now will be on the sideline as a quasi-assistant coach.
“He was unfazed,” said fellow senior co-captain Jermaine Samuels. “He was on to the next challenge.”
Samuels was not surprised by Gillespie’s demeanor.
“Collin has been out a couple of times and his voice was still heard,” Samuels said. “He still makes sure that he stays on top of guys, being the leader that he is. Just seeing his face, just seeing his presence is everything. We’re grateful to have him by our side on the journey.”
Gillespie’s season came to an end when he injured his knee in the first half of Villanova’s 72-60 victory over Creighton on Wednesday night. Gillespie will have surgery in the near future. Villanova coach Jay Wright said he expects Gillespie to make a speedy recovery because it was the MCL and not the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) that was torn.
“When I heard MCL I was happy for him because I know he’ll be back at 100 percent by June, hopefully, with this injury,” Wright said.
In any other year an injury such as this would have ended Gillespie’s collegiate career. This season, however, Gillespie has the option to return. In October, the NCAA granted winter sports athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the effects of the pandemic.
“We have purposely not discussed that because we want to make sure he’s feeling good with his situation,” Wright said. “I think with it being an MCL, I think he’s in a good position where he’ll be healthy by the summer. If he wanted to go, he could go and if he wanted to stay he could have a full year. If we were looking at an ACL it would be a different story. We’re as happy as we can be that it’s MCL for him. We’re going to let him take as much time as he has to to make his decision. We want what’s best for him.”
Right now, that’s being around his teammates until he has the surgery. Gillespie will make the trip to Providence for Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Friars (12-12, 8-10) at Alumni Hall (2:30 p.m., FOX29).
After that, Wright doesn’t know how long Gillespie will remain actively involved with the team from the sideline. One thing is certain though, sophomore Justin Moore will be the point guard moving forward. The
6-4 Moore is averaging 13.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and
3.1 assists per game. When Moore isn’t on the floor it will be “point guard by committee,” Wright said.
“There will be a lot of experimentation,” Wright said. “We did have a good practice (Friday). We got to work on it. We watched film (Thursday) and met as a team and discussed the situation so a lot of other people will be playing the point besides Justin when he’s out of the game.”
The loss of Gillespie will mean more minutes for juniors Cole Swider and Brandon Slater. Both have made one start this season, against Seton Hall on Jan. 19. The
6-9 Swider has started 16 games in his career while the start against Seton Hall was the first of his career for the 6-6 Slater. Both are expected to play starters minutes, Wright said.
“I hope it doesn’t change our style of play,” Wright said. “Obviously he was a big part of everything we did. We played through him a lot but probably we’ll play with more balance. That will probably be the change.”
It’s a next-man-up mentality and the Wildcats are ready for the challenge.
“I think we have to get better at what we do,” Swider said. “Justin’s going to be the main ball handler now and we all have to help him out, bringing the ball up and just playing our roles and continue to defend and rebound. As long as we do that I think we’ll be in a pretty good spot, but we’re going to miss Collin tremendously.”