Over the course of the 2026 NBA Finals, featuring the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, the Nova Notebook by Mike Sheridan is revisiting the Wildcats' careers of Knicks standouts Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Hart. In this installment we look back at the Bridges Breakout.
 
Today, Phil Booth is a Basketball Operations Associate with the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 2014, he was part of a two-man scholarship freshman class on a stacked Villanova Wildcats unit that was coming off a 29-5 campaign that included a BIG EAST regular season crown. Booth, a Top 100 prospect from Baltimore, was alongside a lanky 6-6 newcomer from Malvern whose profile was less prominent.
 
Mikal Bridges and Booth shared a dorm room that season and forged a bond that remains strong in 2026. The two spent time together when the Knicks visited Minneapolis on Dec. 23 (a 115-104 Wolves win over a New York squad that played without an injured Brunson).
 
The 2014-15 season, though, wasn't your typical freshmen getting feet wet at the college level for the friends. Booth, a 6-2 guard, established himself as a piece of the rotation behind Ryan Arcidiacono and Dylan Ennis. Bridges, blocked on the depth chart by seniors Darrun Hilliard and JayVaughn Pinkston, was designated a "redshirt" to preserve a season of eligibility. Bridges took part in every practice, donned a uniform on game night and then patiently watched from the bench as his teammates rolled to a 33-3 record.
 
The "redshirt" year is a long-term play with short-term challenges. Bridges faced them directly.
 
"Mikal is so smart," says Booth. "He understood the plan and never complained. He dove into it."
 
That isn't to say there weren't low moments.
 
"It was almost like he was on a different schedule than the rest of us," Booth states. "On game days, he would head over to the arena to shoot with an assistant coach three hours before the game. He had his own lift times with Coach Shack (then Strength Coach John Shackleton). Some days after practice, we would go back to the dorm, and he wouldn't speak for an hour because he was exhausted."
 
Through the years, the principals have described the "tough love" doled out by Hilliard and Hart in particular daily in the Davis Center. The older, established BIG EAST players used all their acquired wisdom to show the newcomer what it took at this level. There could not have been many better measuring sticks either – both Hilliard and Hart later became All-Americans.
 
"When we first got to Villanova, I think 'Kale weighed less than I did," Booth recalls. "He may not have been 170 pounds. Darrun and Josh were physical with him, but he was never scared."
 
The tide began to turn in late December after the Wildcats returned from Christmas break.
 
"Post winter break you could just see the change," he states. "There was a new confidence level, and he was getting physically stronger."
 
In 2014-15 Matt Kennedy was in his first season as a practice player, essentially a non-roster performer learning the ropes for a larger role as an official "walk-on" later in his career. The native of Fairfax, Va., was added to the official roster in 2016 and earned a championship ring – and recognition as the NCAA Elite 90 Award winner - at the 2018 Final Four. He too formed a fast connection with his fellow freshman.
 
Kennedy recalls many nights of walking to the Davis Center to shoot with or rebound for Bridges.
 
"Mikal and I grew close," Kennedy says. "Because he wasn't playing, there was more opportunity for us to hang out. We would go to dinner and just talk. We were just guys who liked to do nerdy stuff."
 
The mental piece can often be challenging to the "redshirt". After developing an identity tied to the game, they are suddenly working solely behind the scenes. Kennedy believes the toll may have been greater for Bridges than it was for other Wildcat redshirts of that era whose idle season was owed to injury (Donte DiVincenzo), NCAA transfer rules at the time (Eric Paschall) or NCAA eligibility ruling (Omari Spellman).
 
"I don't think it was easy for Mikal," says Kennedy, who now works for Goldman Sachs in New York City as a financial adviser and lists some of his former teammates, many of whom he still sees socially, as clients. "He was a late bloomer, and it wasn't a situation where an injury necessitated the decision. There was still a question of, 'will he ever be good'?"
 
The answer to that came emphatically in 2015-16. Following the graduation of Hilliard and Pinkston, Hart moved into the starting lineup and Bridges became a bench weapon alongside Booth in the eight-man rotation (Darryl Reynolds served as the backup interior player.) Bridges immediately impacted the Wildcats at the top of the 1-2-2 press, with long arms and a knack for disrupting the opponents' attack. By March, he had become an important component in Jay Wright's tool kit.
 
Not long ago, Arcidiacono had occasion to re-watch Villanova's 64-59 victory over Kansas in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight with his wife and daughter. A decade later, that squad's leader was struck by Bridges' impact.
 
"I didn't realize how special his performance was," Arcidiacono states. "His length, his quickness and instincts were amazing. His development that year unlocked our team's potential and took us to another level."
 
"Mikal," adds Booth, "made us a lot better. He's a great cutter and that just brought a different dynamic to our team."
 
The Bridges express was on its way. In 2016-17, he joined the rotation alongside two other recent redshirts, Paschall and DiVincenzo. Booth was forced to the sidelines after three games that season by lingering knee pain, reversing the roles he and Bridges had played as freshmen.
 
"That situation was a little different," states Booth. "It was great to see Mikal, Donte and Eric get their chance. But I was in so much pain I just needed to get my knee situation right. It turned out to be a good reset for me, although Josh still gives me (grief) because he believes if I had been able to play, we could have gotten another championship."
 
Bridges, Brunson and Booth served as tri-captains on the 2017-18 unit. Spellman stepped into fill a frontcourt void and Villanova was again positioned for another deep run. Bridges followed in the footsteps of Hart, winning the Julius Erving Award and gave a hint of things to come with a signature throwdown dunk in a December win over Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden (the clip can still be found on YouTube via a Google search).
 
"That," says Booth of the 36-4 champions, "was an easy team to lead."
 
As a Manhattan resident, Kennedy has seen the impact this Knicks team has had on the five boroughs.
 
"This is a Knicks town," he notes, "and I think some of what people here are reacting to is the 'Villanova attitude' that Josh, Jalen and Mikal always carry with them."
 
Booth ended his playing career last summer. He joined the Timberwolves front office in September.
 
"It's been great," he states. "There is so much professionalism in this organization and I'm just trying to learn as much as I can."
 
Of course, one of the more prominent Wolves is the former Nova Knick DiVincenzo, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon during Minnesota's playoff run, which ended when they were eliminated by the Spurts in six games.
 
"That's been cool for sure," Booth states. "It's kind of an extension of the relationship we had as teammates."
 
Game Four of the Finals is set for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. Bridges will take the court in front of a frenzied gathering of 20,000 Knicks diehards, including a wall of celebrities.
 
It's a long way away from the dark nights of 2014-15 and an empty Davis Center gym.