Collin Gillespie (born June 25, 1999) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA) on a

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with the

Grand Rapids Gold The Grand Rapids Gold are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and are affiliated with the Denver Nuggets. The Gold play their home games at Van Andel Arena. They began play as the Anaheim ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He played

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for the

Villanova Wildcats The Villanova Wildcats are the athletic teams of Villanova University. They compete in the Big East (NCAA Division I) for every sport; except football and rowing where they compete in the Colonial Athletic Association (Football Championship Sub ...

. Gillespie was named Big East co-Player of the Year in 2021 and won it outright the following year.

Early life and high school career

Gillespie is the son of a police officer. He attended Archbishop Wood Catholic High School, where he was coached by John Mosco. Gillespie had no Division I scholarship offers coming into his senior year, but received offers from Rider,

Hofstra Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New ...

and Villanova after strong play in a tournament. He scored 42 points in a regular-season win over Neumann Goretti featuring Kentucky recruit Quade Green. As a senior, he led the team to a PIAA Class 5A state title in 2017. Gillespie averaged 24.1 points per game as a senior and was named Philadelphia Player of the Year by the

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Dail ...

as well as Catholic League Most Valuable Player. He signed a letter of intent with Villanova on April 14, 2017, joining Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree and

Jermaine Samuels Jermaine Samuels Jr. (born November 13, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats men's basketball, Villanova Wildcats. Samuels att ...

in the class of 2021.

College career

Gillespie enrolled at Villanova in the fall of 2017, and he wanted to redshirt his freshman year at the school, but coach Jay Wright decided against doing it because Gillespie "was playing above his years." Soon breaking into the rotation, Gillespie scored in double figures in his second collegiate game, but he also had to learn to adjust to the quickness of the college game. Gillespie had to miss more than a month in December and January due to a fractured bone in his left hand sustained in a December 10 practice. However, he returned to action in a January 17 road win over Georgetown. He provided quality minutes and had eight points including two three-pointers in a February 1 win over Creighton due to the absence of Phil Booth with a similar hand injury. Gillespie made his first start on February 10, in an 86–75 win over

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Gillespie scored nine points and had a steal in a win versus Radford. He had four points and five rebounds in the 79–62 NCAA championship game win over

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He averaged 4.3 points per game in 14.4 minutes per game. Gillespie posted a 2.6-to-1 assist to turnover ratio, which Wright attributed to him thinking about his teammates and trying to make them better. Gillespie scored a season-high 30 points in a 77–65 win against Georgetown on February 3, 2019. On March 9, he had 22 points in a 79–75 loss to

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...

. As a sophomore, Gillespie averaged 10.9 points per game. Coming into his junior season, Gillespie broke his nose in practice, forcing him to wear a mask for several games. Gillespie had 27 points and six assists in an 87–78 loss to Baylor in the championship game of the Myrtle Beach Classic. He was named to the All-Tournament Team and

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

player of the week on November 25. On January 28, 2020, Gillespie had his first double-double with 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds in a 79–59 win over St. John's. Gillespie scored a season-high 29 points on February 16, in a 76–56 win over

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

. At the conclusion of the regular season, Gillespie was selected to the Second Team All-Big East. He averaged 15.1 points, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game on a team that finished 24–7. Coming into his senior season, Gillespie was named to the

Bob Cousy Award The Bob Cousy Award presented by The College of the Holy Cross (or Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award) is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard. ...

watchlist as well as Preseason First Team All-Big East. He tore his MCL during a 72–60 win over Creighton on March 3, 2021, ending his season. At the conclusion of the regular season, Gillespie was named Big East Co-Player of the Year alongside teammate

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl Jeremiah Christian Robinson-Earl (born November 3, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Villanova Wildcats. High schoo ...

and Seton Hall's

Sandro Mamukelashvili Alexander "Sandro" Mamukelashvili ( ka, ალექსანდრე "სანდრო" მამუკელაშვილი; born May 23, 1999) is a Georgian-American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the Nationa ...

. He averaged 14 points and 4.6 assists per game. Gillespie decided to take advantage of the additional season of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 15, 2022, Gillespie scored a career-high 33 points despite playing on a swollen ankle in an 89–84 win at

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

Professional career

Denver Nuggets (2022–present)

After going undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft, Gillespie signed a

with the

. Gillespie joined the Nuggets' 2022 NBA Summer League team. In his Summer League debut, Gillespie scored 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists in a 78–85 loss to the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

. In four Summer League games, he averaged 11.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. On July 30, 2022, the Nuggets announced that Gillespie had undergone surgery for a lower leg fracture and that he would be out indefinitely.

National team career

In the summer of 2019, Gillespie was a part of the United States National team who competed at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

in Peru. The team won bronze, defeating Dominican Republic behind 25 points from Gillespie.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 32 , , 1 , , 14.4 , , .452 , , .394 , , .800 , , 1.3 , , 1.1 , , .6 , , .1 , , 4.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 35 , , 35 , , 29.4 , , .409 , , .379 , , .839 , , 2.4 , , 2.8 , , 1.1 , , .1 , , 10.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 31 , , 31 , , 34.1 , , .406 , , .357 , , .817 , , 3.7 , , 4.5 , , 1.2 , , .1 , , 15.1 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 20 , , 20 , , 33.4 , , .428 , , .376 , , .833 , , 3.3 , , 4.6 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , 14.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Villanova , 38 , , 38 , , 34.2 , , .434 , , .415 , , .905 , , 3.8 , , 3.2 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , 15.6 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 156 , , 125 , , 28.9 , , .422 , , .387 , , .848 , , 2.9 , , 3.1 , , 1.0 , , .0 , , 11.9

References

External links

*
Villanova Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Collin 1999 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Basketball players from Pennsylvania Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in basketball People from Warminster, Pennsylvania Point guards Sportspeople from Bucks County, Pennsylvania United States men's national basketball team players Villanova Wildcats men's basketball players