Providence coach felt Collin Gillespie’s grit in Villanova’s dramatic Big East win | Mike Jensen

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — His Friars took a step back defensively. That’s what Providence coach Ed Cooley said. He could have meant it literally. Collin Gillespie with the ball, you pick up the switch, your first step can’t be back, worrying about a drive. At this late stage of his college career, Gillespie punishes such thoughts.

It’s one thing for Gillespie, in his fifth season at Villanova, to put up a career high on a swollen ankle. But 33 points on the road, against a team that hadn’t lost all season at home, was ranked eighth nationally, had only lost once in the Big East. Make it twice. Tuesday night, Villanova, 89-84.

“I was really just trying to read it,” Gillespie said of his late dagger, after the guard had moved past Jermaine Samuels outside the three-point line, one Friars defender realizing he had to switch but taking that fateful step back, kind of screening off the other Friars defender. “I had an open shot, so I had to take it,” Gillespie added.

» READ MORE: Instant analysis from Villanova winning at Providence

“It’s one of those games, I can’t call things — they’ve got to make the calls,” Jay Wright said later. “You can’t hear. … It’s leadership.”

Let Cooley give the proper context. There should be a series, on Netflix or CBS Sports Network, or somewhere … Ed Cooley explains the world. Providence’s coach had just experienced an all-time gut punch. He still was going to attempt to tell it like it was.

“Oooh, take a deep breath on this one here,” Cooley said when he got to the press conference. “A lot to process in a short period of time.”

Grateful for the home fans, Cooley said, they’ve gotten his team over the hump so many times. He talked about the poise shown by Villanova.

“Collin, he really showed up today,” Cooley said. “Showed his maturity, showed his toughness, his ability to make shots late. I was very surprised by my team’s execution in the last five minutes of the game. I thought we made eight mistakes — and the biggest mistake was on me.”

He meant thinking how with the energy of that crowd, putting on a late press would work. Villanova has struggled at times with such pressure.

“This loss is definitely on me,” Cooley said. “Time and score, one possession [down], 50-some odd seconds left, let’s just play man-to-man, ride it out that way. … They took advantage of all the mistakes.”

Then he went back to the Gillespie play.

“I talked to my team — end of the game, the known is the guy with the ball, who played really, really well,” Cooley said. “To leave him that wide open is just inexcusable.”

Cooley shifted to saying how everyone talks about Duke and North Carolina and UCLA “and all them” as blue bloods.

“The team we just played there is as blue as they get,” Cooley said.

An opportunity for his own team now, he said, to show some resilience and respond and grow.

“Last time I checked, the Friars are still in first place,” Providence’s coach mentioned, since the Friars are 11-2 in the Big East, while Villanova is 13-3. “There’s a big picture here. As I just told our men, our worst day is a young man’s dream, to be in that locker room.”

Cooley came back to Villanova’s poise. It did come back to that.

“This is as hostile an environment as you’re going to see in college basketball,” Cooley said. “My head is ringing, literally.”

Until 2 minutes and 45 seconds were left in the first half, Gillespie had scored two points. (Which meant he scored 31 in the last 23 minutes of the game.) Justin Moore had gotten Villanova going early. Cooley thought his own team responded well to playing from behind. The Friars did a lot of punishing driving on Villanova guards.

“Let’s face it, you all got an opportunity — all you all sitting here had an opportunity to watch one hell of a college basketball game,” Cooley said. “I mean, a hell of a basketball game. I coached the damn game so I know how good it was, trust me when I tell you that.”

Asked about Villanova’s ability to post up guards and create open looks, Cooley said, “That dude’s in the Hall of Fame for a reason,” of the other guy coaching the game, how Villanova is “systematic at an elite level.”

Last minute, a first step in the wrong direction, Gillespie punishing the step.