Final Four game matchup: Kansas Jayhawks must solve this unique Villanova skill
Much has been made of the loss of Villanova’s second-leading scorer Justin Moore, who is out of Saturday’s men’s Final Four showdown against Kansas because of an Achilles injury.
There’s no doubt Moore’s absence will be felt in New Orleans: he scored 14.8 points per game, stretched the floor with his shooting, defended the wing well and, perhaps most importantly, played a team-high 34.6 minutes per game in a rotation that really only went six deep.
One player cannot replace that kind of production, but one action could replace a good chunk of it.
For years now, Villanova has been inverting the floor to post up its guards and capitalize on scoring where opposing guards are not used to defending. It started in 2016 with 6-foot-5 guard Josh Hart, continued with 6-foot-2 guard Jalen Brunson in 2018 and 6-foot-3 guard Phil Booth in 2019.
The art has been perfected the last two seasons by Collin Gillespie.
In fact, Gillespie ranks No. 1 in the country — all 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds of him — in scoring efficiency on post-ups (with at least 25 attempts) at 1.38 points per possession, per Synergy Sports. His array of spin moves and shot fakes would make Andre Miller, who popularized the guard post-up in the NBA, proud.
“Just learning it from the guys who came before me,” Gillespie said. “When I got to school, Jalen Brunson did it to me. So I learned a lot from him, how to play out of there, the importance of it, being able to create your own shot inside there at a close range and being able to kick it out and be a decision-maker out of there.”
That’s why the Gillespie post-up could become a vital part of determining the winner and loser of Saturday’s 5:09 p.m. semifinal (TBS).
“You hope it’s something that can be effective,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “It’s just a part of what we do. We can be successful without it, but it’s something that we like to use.”
It’s a point of concern for a KU team that almost always has one diminutive guard on the floor in either Dajuan Harris (6-1, 170) or Remy Martin (6-0, 175) with them sometimes playing together.
Even if KU starts a bigger wing, like Ochai Agbaji (6-5, 215) or Christian Braun (6-6, 220), on Gillespie, it wouldn’t be difficult for Villanova to hunt the matchup it wants given KU’s propensity for switching all screens not involving the center. That would also give Villanova a favorable matchup with shooting guard Caleb Daniels (6-4, 210).
That switch-everything defense has left KU’s defense vulnerable at times when Harris or Martin are left on an island against a much bigger player. While Gillespie won’t enjoy that kind of size advantage, he has shown the ability to back smaller guards down and shoot over them — something that both Harris and Martin are susceptible to. Plus, he has to like his chances against a duo allowing 1.14 points per possession on post-up attempts this season.
And what makes Gillespie such a unique post-up scorer is that almost all of his post-up attempts begin with him dribbling the ball on the perimeter. No matter how far the KU defender picks him up, Gillespie has no problem methodically backing them down from the three-point line and digging into his bag of tricks to almost always find a way to get to the rim or draw a foul.
“We’ve got guys in our league that may post guards, but we don’t have guys in our league that have guards get the ball at 20 feet and dribble into a post-up,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It’s totally different and certainly not easy to prepare for.”
It will be interesting to see how Self deploys his centers, David McCormack and Mitch Lightfoot, when Gillespie starts to go to work in the post.
McCormack has shown good instincts to rescue Harris and Martin at times when they were outmatched in the post, leaving his man to swoop in and block the shot from behind. But the chances of pulling that strategy off against Villanova is not likely.
Under Wright, Villanova has always been superb at spacing the floor and stretching defenses with its shooting. When Gillespie sinks farther down the floor, the other four players on Villanova all rise above the free throw line to give him room to operate. And the fifth-year senior is too smart and too in control to not pick out the open shooter if KU’s help defense creeps into the paint.
That puts McCormack in a strange position. His instincts tell him to go running to the paint to try to contest the shot, but can he afford to leave Villanova center Eric Dixon wide open? Dixon has only made 17 three-pointers (less than one per game), but is shooting at a 51.5% clip this season and has been reliable with the outside shot during Villanova’s postseason run.
Could KU trap Gillespie in the post to force a pass and hope its back-side defense can scramble well enough to prevent Villanova from hoisting a barrage of open three-pointers?
Or could KU try to glue Agbaji or Braun to Gillespie in an attempt to make him score over length in the post?
Saturday’s game between KU and Villanova promises to be a chess match between two of the brightest basketball minds in the country. How KU defends Gillespie in the post should be one of the most intriguing game-within-the-games to watch unfold.
“One of the things about Kansas that concerns us is they play with length and size,” Wright said. “And they always have a Lightfoot or McCormack around the basket to protect the basket. That’s going to be difficult. So we’re going to have to be creative in finding ways to get our guards down there. If we can, it’s going to be good for us. If we can’t, we have to have other answers.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 3:29 PM.
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