City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
—

(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2021-22 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

~~~

The stoic façade won’t change, no matter what the situation or what’s really going on inside Collin Gillespie’s head. Villanova’s star 6-foot-3 fifth-year senior guard won’t show it.

He never has.

He never will.

Though, the Archbishop Wood graduate does know what his nadir was last season, after suffering a season-ending torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the first half of the Wildcats’ 72-60 victory over Creighton on March 3 that clinched the regular-season Big East title.

“After surgery, watching my team compete in the Big East Tournament not being able to help those guys while I was lying in my dorm room with my leg propped up under some pillows,” Gillespie recalled, “that was really tough.”

He even admits he had doubts whether he was going to be the same player again.

“When you have a major surgery like that, you always question whether you’ll be the same player,” he said. “But just understand that it’s a part of your journey, and part of God’s plan, believing that I would be back was important. When I started rehabbing and was able to lift and jump (in April and May), it’s when I probably started to believe I would be back.”

It’s what pushes Gillespie into striving to be who he was last year—the best player in the Big East and arguably one of the top five guards in the nation.

Gillespie was enjoying the best season of his career when he got injured. He was averaging a career-best 4.6 assists per game and was second on the Wildcats in scoring, averaging 14.0 points a game and his 2.88 assists to turnover ratio (92 assists, 32 turnovers) ranked 17th in NCAA Division I.

He was named a third team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association. He was named co-Big East Player of the Year (with teammate Jeremiah Robinson-Earl), a first team All-Big East selection and was a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard.

He was—and is—Villanova’s leader.

Gillespie (left) drives against classmate Jermaine Samuels during Villanova's annual Blue & White Scrimmage in October. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

~~~

Yet, there he was last March, with the dark creeping up around him, lying there helpless unable to do anything but watch.

If Big East opponents thought they saw a different side of Gillespie last season, they may get an even deeper glimpse this year of someone with an even bigger chip on his shoulder than he usually plays with.

“I’ve never taken basketball for granted, even before my injury,” said Gillespie, who is taking graduate courses after graduating with a communications degree. “Basketball is something that has given me a lot in life. I’ve been very blessed with the people that I have met through basketball and the places that it’s taken me. It’s why I say I never took basketball for granted, even before my injury.

“The injury is motivation to take care of my body more, eat the right ways, but it was a freak injury and there was nothing that I really could have done to probably prevent it. It’s part of my journey. It’s something that I’ve had to deal with, something that I had to live through and it’s a good thing to face adversity and learn how to go through something like that that’s tough and be able to respond from it.”

However…

“It’s definitely extra motivation to come back and prove myself all over again,” he said. “I feel like I’ve gotten stronger over the summer, but I don’t think the toughness has ever left me. I’m around 190 pounds, around the same as I weighed last year. But I do feel stronger. I worked hard this off-season to get back and I just have to have confidence in that and all of the work that I put in.”

Gillespie stressed he wants to be a more complete player. He feels his decision-making could improve, and says that he’s about 90% where he wants to be physically. It will take a little time to get his basketball legs back. He still takes treatment every day, and he is playing every day.

Some days good, he admits. Some days bad. There is still some swelling.

Like Villanova’s expectations. The Wildcats have started the season ranked No. 4 in the country in AP’s first poll, behind Gonzaga, UCLA and Kansas.

With the Eagles floundering, the Sixers embedded in the ongoing Ben Simmons turmoil, the Phillies an afterthought and the Flyers (regrettably) nonexistent in the minds of most area sports fans, the Wildcats pose the best chance to win another championship in this city.

At the eye of that quest is Gillespie.

“Personally, I want to get healthy first, but for us, we really don’t worry about championships and winning, we just worry about making sure we’re playing Villanova basketball every night and making sure we have a growth mindset,” Gillespie said. “There are a lot of ups and downs throughout a season, so we try to be the best Villanova team we can be by the end of the year.

“That’s the goal that we have at the end of every year in this program.”

Last year, the Wildcats finished 18-7 overall (11-4 Big East), reaching the Sweet 16, where they lost to eventual NCAA national champion Baylor, 62-51. Villanova will need to make up for the losses of forwards Robinson-Earl (15.7 ppg, 8.5 rpg) and Cole Swider (5.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg).

Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright will look to fifth-year senior Jermaine Samuels (12.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and more consistency from 6-8, 260-pound sophomore Eric Dixon (3.0 ppg, 1.6 rpg). In the backcourt, 6-4 junior Justin Moore (12.9 ppg, 3.0 apg) carried the Wildcats in the NCAA tournament in place of Gillespie. Moore can be a star.

The pieces are there. The coaching is always there. Gillespie appears back.

That could translate into playing deep into March and hopefully April.

“God willing, I hope so,” Gillespie said, “I just don’t want to look that far ahead.”

He’s already spent enough time looking back.

~~~

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.