Collin Gillespie
of Villanova suffered a torn MCL on Wednesday and it appears the senior point guard is out for the rest of the season.
The news came back Thursday about Villanova point guard Collin Gillespie’s knee injury, and it wasn’t good.
Villanova’s senior leader tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the first half of Wednesday night’s win over Creighton and is expected to miss the remainder of the season, the program announced. The diagnosis was confirmed during an MRI performed Thursday.
“We are all devastated for Collin,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said in a statement. “He is the heart and soul of our program. We know we can’t replace him. We all just want to step up and play so that we honor him.
“Collin is as mentally tough and resilient as any player we have had here. I know he will get through this and make it a positive for his career.”
The 6-foot-3 Gillespie, the team leader on and off the court, suffered the injury when he got tangled up with Creighton’s Damien Jefferson near the basket. He left the court in obvious pain with 6 minutes, 38 seconds remaining in the first half of the Cats’ 72-60 victory at Finneran Pavilion.
Whether Gillespie returns to take the extra year of eligibility allowed by the NCAA because of the pandemic will be open to speculation. But if he decides to pass on it, he will leave with many notable achievements, the most important being his key reserve role on the Wildcats’ 2018 national championship team.
Gillespie earned second-team All-Big East honors last season and was a first-team selection on the 2020-21 pre-season all-conference squad. This season, he also is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award given to the nation’s top point guard.
In 20 games this season, he has averaged 14.0 points, 4.6 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game while his 2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks second in the Big East. He leads the Wildcats in assists, free-throw shooting and minutes played, and is their most prolific 3-point shooter.
He played in his 118th career game Wednesday night and Villanova won for the 94th time.