City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Just as everything was getting back to normal for Villanova, suddenly the Wildcats will have to deal with their toughest challenge yet this season.

The team announced that redshirt junior guard Phil Booth suffered a fractured bone in his right (shooting) hand during the second half of the Wildcats’ win over Providence last night, and he will be out indefinitely.

Booth, a 6-3 combo guard from Baltimore (Md.), is the third different Villanova player to suffer a broken bone in his hand this season, along with freshman Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels. But he’s clearly the most important of the trio, and his absence could be a big blow for the nation’s No. 1 team.

One of the heroes of the 2016 National Championship game, scoring what was then a career-high 20 points in the win over UNC, Booth played only three games last season as he dealt with a knee issue, but looked to be back to full strength this year.

In 20 games, all starts, he was averaging a career-best 11.6 ppg, 3.3 apg and 3.2 apg, making 43 percent of his 3-pointers and 49 percent overall. He played 25 minutes on Tuesday night, finishing with eight points and four rebounds.

“All of us are disappointed for Phil,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said in a release. “He is one of our captains and the respect for him among his teammates is off the charts. Phil is as mentally tough a player as we have had in our program. We know he’ll come back better and stronger from this.”

With Booth out, Gillespie -- a 6-3 freshman out of Archbishop Wood -- will likely see a large uptick in minutes. He’s played in a dozen games, averaging 3.8 ppg, 1.2 rpg and 1.2 apg in about 12 minutes; the Providence game was his third back and healthy after breaking a bone in his hand in December.

Samuels, a 6-6 wing, injured his hand later in December and hasn’t yet returned to the court.

Villanova (19-1, 6-1) will next play this Sunday at Marquette (13-6, 4-3) before returning for four straight at home, beginning with Creighton on Feb. 1.