Villanova's Wright says guard Phil Booth still isn't ready to play
Villanova guard Phil Booth still is experiencing pain in his surgically repaired left knee and coach Jay Wright said the situation is looking worse each day.
More than two months has passed since Phil Booth appeared on the basketball court for Villanova while he continues to have pain and inflammation in his left knee, and coach Jay Wright sounded a little more pessimistic Saturday about whether he will return.
"There's a chance," Wright said after the top-ranked Wildcats defeated Providence, 78-68, at the Wells Fargo Center.
"If he got to the point where he said to us, 'I'm good, I've got no pain,' then we start having to look at, 'All right, how long is it going to take you to get back?' and then make a decision. We can't make a decision because he's still not saying, 'It's pain-free.' The longer he goes, the longer it's going to take him to get back, the deeper it gets in the season. Each day, it looks worse."
Booth, a 6-foot-3 junior whose career high of 20 points came last year in the Wildcats' national championship victory over North Carolina, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee about a month after the title game. He played in the first three games this season, scoring a total of 17 points in 72 minutes of action.
However, while he warmed up for the season's fourth game on Nov. 18 against Wake Forest at the Charleston Classic, he did not play because of pain in the knee, and he has missed every game since. Wright has said Booth will not play until he is completely pain-free, and that no deadline has been set for a decision on whether he will redshirt.