SAN ANTONIO — All night long, Houston’s Jamal Shead had stuck to Villanova point guard Collin Gillespie like an insect that was too fast to kill and too persistent to shoo away. Shead was everywhere Gillespie went, erasing his air space and determined to make the Wildcats’ most important player a non-factor in the Elite Eight.
“You try as hard as you can to stop him from what he’s good at,” Shead said.
For 35 minutes, it worked to perfection. Gillespie had scored two points from the free-throw line, but he hadn’t made a shot. Houston had climbed back within two points with five minutes remaining, and the heavily pro-Cougars crowd at AT&T Center was roaring to life.
Villanova coach Jay Wright called timeout and, of course, put the ball in Gillespie’s hands. All through this miserable slog of a regional final, Gillespie never pouted, never pressed, never tried to make something out of nothing. He didn’t take a single bad shot. When the play wasn’t there, he passed the ball and moved on.
But somehow, coming out of that huddle with five minutes left, Gillespie found himself guarded by someone besides Shead. With one dribble to his right, he created more space than he had all night and let a 17-foot jumper go. In an NCAA Tournament game, some baskets are bigger than others. When Gillespie’s swished through the net, it felt as enormous as any two points Villanova scored this year.
“I hope part of our culture is humility,” Villanova coach Jay Wright…
