Villanova MBB: Collin Gillespie’s Secret Scrimmage, Lessons from Jay Wright

Villanova alumnus Collin Gillespie appeared on “The Young Man and the Three” podcast in an episode published on Thursday, Jan. 1, giving anecdotes of his time on the Main Line and his subsequent journey to the NBA.

Gillespie, who won a national championship in his freshman season and averaged 14.3 minutes off the bench, described how joining a roster packed with future NBA players helped him learn the value of hard work… and of course, how learning from Jay Wright paid dividends.

While fellow Wildcats products Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart are famous for rooming together during their time at Villanova, using that as inspiration for their joint podcast, Gillespie said that he roomed with Brunson following Hart’s graduation in 2017. From his first moments on campus, Gillespie saw what made Brunson special.

“I was roommates with him when I first got there [Villanova] in my first summer session and we would get out of practice, we would have our lifts, get out of practice, and then he was, like a half hour later he was going back to the gym with his dad,” Gillespie said. 

“I just remember, I’m like ‘I don’t know how he’s not dead tired.’ We just had a three hour practice, we had lift in the morning, we had yoga the next morning, so I’m like how is he not dead tired. But I saw it very early, even his eating habits… he’s a special individual.”

Secret Scrimmage Snafu

Gillespie now plays for the Phoenix Suns. One of his teammates, center Mark Williams, appeared on the podcast alongside him. Williams went to Duke, and the duo discussed a secret scrimmage that Villanova played against the Blue Devils ahead of the 2021-22 season, one that saw the Wildcats make the Final Four.

As the name suggests, both programs wanted to keep quiet about the joint practice session… but it didn’t end up that way.

“It was supposed to be like no media access,” Williams said. “And then somehow, some way, stats came out. We won the game.”

Gillespie responded.

“After the game they were like ‘yo, don’t post anything from the game, blah blah blah,’ and Duke, bro, puts out their footage!” Gillespie said.

“We put out the clips!” Williams interjected. Villanova followed suit.

“So then we were like ‘we’re putting out clips,’” Gillespie said. 

“I don’t have the box score but [Duke center] Paolo [Banchero] went crazy. [Villanova guard] Justin Moore played really well. We had a scrimmage of ten minutes that was just zone, straight zone. We’re playing zone, Paolo’s catching it at the free throw line, throwing it straight to the rim to Mark.”

Both Duke and Villanova entered the 2021-22 season with national title hopes, and both programs went on to make the Final Four. Savvy player that he is, Gillespie made sure to take notes from the exhibition.

“I’m like alright, we’re never gonna play them zone in a game,” Gillespie said.

Path to the Pros

While Gillespie led that Villanova team in scoring, he went unselected in the 2022 NBA Draft, signing a free agent deal with the Denver Nuggets. Undrafted players are a long shot to earn meaningful NBA minutes to begin with, and Gillespie’s hopes took another hit the following month when he broke his leg in a Summer League game. That kept him off the court for the entirety of the 2022-23 season.

Gillespie said his path while on a two-way deal with Denver mirrored his beginning with the Wildcats. As an undrafted player, Gillespie had to grind to get on the floor, and the attention to detail and perfectionism that Wright imparted to him helped him earn a full NBA contract ahead of the 2025-26 season after three years as a fringe roster addition.

“Coach Wright was super influential in how we were practicing every day, our approach, being professional, being coachable, stuff like that,” Gillespie said. “Doing all the little things that get you on the floor and then once you get on the floor everything else kind of takes care of itself, and once you get that opportunity you can kind of go do what you know you’re able to do.”

Gillespie eventually caught on with the Phoenix Suns, breaking into the lineup at the end of a lost season before earning a one-year, $2.3 million deal from the team this past offseason.

Wright’s lessons paid off.