Collin Gillespie did a bunch of Collin Gillespie things against Ohio State
Gillespie didn't shoot well, but he played winning basketball. “We have the ultimate faith and trust in him,” said Jermaine Samuels, Gillespie’s fellow fifth-year player.
PITTSBURGH – Villanova’s offense had gotten a little stagnant. During a second-half timeout, did Jay Wright maybe say something to Collin Gillespie like, time to take over a little bit here? It looked that way. Gillespie got extra aggressive getting to the basket the next couple of minutes. They weren’t the biggest plays of Sunday’s NCAA South Regional second-round win over Ohio State, just part of it.
Must have said something …
» READ MORE: Eric Dixon made sure he and Villanova headed to the Sweet 16 on a high note
“I don’t think we ever say that,” Wright said after the game, after it went final at 71-61, Villanova advancing to face Michigan and the Flying Martellis Thursday in San Antonio, 7:15 p.m. “No, we never say that. We all kind of feel it. Then we are running plays to put him into this decision-maker position. Sometimes somebody else will get shots because he makes the right play, sometimes he does.”
You get that by now. This urgency looked deliberate. Wright just insisted the urgency was self-imposed by Gillespie.
“That’s what it is,” Wright said. “He’s the decision-maker out there. We will call the play for him to be the decision-maker and he will determine who gets the shot. Kind of like a quarterback running a two-minute drill, they’re going to pick who is open. That’s what he does a great job of.”
» READ MORE: Collin Gillespie’s game was Northeast Philly-made before Villanova even happened
Gillespie didn’t take over the whole game. Some of those front-rim jumpers late were by him. Overall, he shot 5 for 14 from the field, 2 for 9 from three. Half his 20 points were in that early stretch when he scored 10 straight ‘Nova points, had outscored Ohio State by himself at that point. Eight were from the foul line, where he went 8 for 8.
Whenever Villanova throws out a complete clunker, the Wildcats are gone from this tournament, they can’t simply out-talent the field … there are no NBA lottery picks on this team, now or in the future. Yet all sorts of No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are gone and here Villanova is again, a 5-point favorite over Michigan. Collin Gillespie doing a bunch of Collin Gillespie things is a large path of that.
A decision by Gillespie after last season that rather than rehabbing after his knee injury while turning pro, he’d come back – all that is a distant memory by now. He looks able to get his own shot more easily now than ever before, and able to put defenders into a spin cycle outside or in. So it isn’t just the intangibles that Gillespie offers as a fifth-year leader. It’s one thing to be older. It’s another to still be getting better.
» READ MORE: 'Nova women prepare for clash of stars in NCAA Tournament: Maddy Siegrist vs. Michigan's Naz Hillmon
The intangibles though …
“We have the ultimate faith and trust in him,” said Jermaine Samuels, Gillespie’s fellow fifth-year player. “We see him work every single day and anything he does we follow. Anything he needs, we do, and that’s the beauty of our team.”