Feb. 18, 2005
The Nova Notebook, by Villanova director of media relations Mike Sheridan, appears each week beginning in the fall and continues through the basketball season. This week we visit with Randy Foye after one of the more physically demanding weeks of the junior guard's college career.
As he met with reporters following Villanova's 89-51 victory over Bucknell earlier this week, Allan Ray was asked about the scary fall of his friend and roommate, Randy Foye in the first half of that contest.
"I didn't see it," Ray, who was on the Wildcat bench at the time of the incident. "But I heard it."
Indeed, the play that ended with Foye crashing to the floor in front of the student section at the Pavilion was one of the scarier moments in recent memory. Unable to break his fall as he was fouled by Bison guard Abe Badmus on an attempted dunk, Foye landed with full force. He remained on the ground for several minutes before being helped up by head athletic trainer Jeff Pierce and several teammates. Foye appeared woozy as he walked back to the locker room. He returned to the bench but saw no more action that night.
Villanova team physicians Dr. Frank Furman and Dr. Rob Good were on hand and examined Foye when he was taken into the training room. Two nights later, Foye was in the starting lineup at Seton Hall, playing 34 minutes and supplying his customary superior defensive pressure, this time on Seton Hall senior John Allen. At night's end, Allen, whose basket two years ago was the difference in a 57-56 Hall victory in New Jersey, had scored only six points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field.
Foye's teammates marveled at his grit.
"Randy," noted Ray, "is one tough guy."
It's a point of view none of the 6,500 people who witnessed the Tuesday fall would dispute. But the man at the center of it all sounds unconvinced.
"I was out for the Bucknell game (after the collision)," he says, "If I was tough, I would have played in the second half."
In fact, Foye was willing and the physicians did not prohibit a return. However, with the Wildcats holding a 15-point halftime lead on the Bison that would grow to 38 points in the second half, the coaching staff decided to give Foye the rest of the evening off.
At that juncture, no one would have objected had Foye remained in the locker room to collect himself. Foye had something else in mind.
"I wanted to be out there so that my teammates knew I supported them," Foye states. "It would have been a lot harder for me to sit there and watch if we weren't having success. But it was great to see guys like Baker (Dunleavy) and Chris (Charles) get a chance to play. I was happy to watch them do well because they work so hard."
Following the game, Foye returned to his campus apartment. His body was sore and there was a headache that lingered. Just to be on the safe side, Ray awoke several times through the course of the night to check on the product of East Side High School.
Foye watched from the scorer's table during Wednesday's practice. By the time Thursday rolled around, he felt well enough to participate in the team's game day walk through at the Continental Airlines Arena. To the outside observer, he appeared ready for duty but a measure of doubt remained about his availability.
"I thought I could play," he says, "but I wasn't sure."
At the suggestion of the coaching staff, Foye and assistant coach Brett Gunning hitched a ride with a Villanova staff member from the team hotel to the arena in advance of the team charter bus.
"We went over early so that I could get some shots in to see how I would feel," he says. "I was trying to determine if my body was telling me that I was trying to go too quickly. But when we got out there, I felt good."
So when the starting lineup was handed into the official scorer, Foye was a part of it. And, though, it wasn't his most accurate shooting night (3-of-9 from the field), the product of nearby Newark was a defensive gem. He helped limit the Pirates to .327 shooting from the floor and added four assists to go with zero turnovers.
Of course, the night included another high-speed body blow.
This time, Foye was attempting to collect a rebound when he and Pirate center Kelly Whitney collided, banging heads. Both fell to the floor. It was an unintentional but powerful collision. In this instance, though, Whitney seemed to absorb the more direct blow. For his trouble, Foye received a knot on the back of his head.
"When it first happened," says Foye, "I was like, `not again.'"
Foye required no standing eight count. He continued and was a key component in Villanova's 66-52 win over the Hall, its first in the Meadowlands since 1995.
If others wish to label him as tough, that's OK. Foye, however, says his willingness to play through painful body blows is a product of something else.
"I am dedicated to doing anything I can to make this season something special for us," says Foye. "I'm just so hungry for us to win that I want to be out there as much as I can."
To that end, he has embraced his role as Villanova's defensive stopper. It is a role he has grown into after some early ups and downs, especially in his freshman year when he was often asked to chase quick point guards. Now, though, Foye believes that experience benefits him.
"It helped that I got to play against point guards as a freshman," he says. "I learned to play against real quick guys and that's something I use now."
Wright has often cited Foye for his skill at clamping down on foes this season. The 6-3 guard is second in the Big East in steals. But the subject of that praise says any success he has is a product of teamwork.
"I give a lot of credit to my teammates," notes a man who also averages 14.1 ppg and 5.0 rpg. "There are guys I have played against who are great 1-on-1 players. If I was out there on my own, I might not be able to contain them. But if they get by me, they see Jason (Fraser), Curtis (Sumpter), Will (Sheridan) or Allan. You really don't do it as one man."
As an interview concludes, Foye pauses to study a photo of the Pavilion hanging in an office in the Villanova athletic department. The image was taken during the 2002-03 season in a game against Boston College. Foye is obscured in the photo, taken from above the court during a Fraser free throw attempt.
At that point, Foye was an eager, talented but inexperienced rookie.
These days he is quite a bit more...
"Talking Villanova Basketball with Jay Wright" returns to the air from The Great American Pub in Conshohocken, Pa. on Feb. 22. The show runs from 6-7 p.m. and can be heard locally on WNTP (990 AM).
