A holiday season installment of the Nova Notebook catches up with legendary Wildcats' guard Allan Ray, who will be inducted into the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame on Friday, Jan. 19 at Finneran Pavilion.
 
It's midday now in the Atlanta area and Allan Ray, a native son of the Bronx, N.Y., who settled there during a long professional basketball career in Europe, is at his home after a morning stop at Walmart.
 
Ray, who scored 2,025 points in an All-American career that spanned 2002-06 as a Wildcat, will be saluted twice early in 2024. Not long after he joins the ranks of Villanova Athletics' all-time greats, St. Raymond's High School will retire his jersey in February. This follows his Villanova jersey retirement in 2019 and his induction into the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame.
 
It's the kind of multi-tiered recognition only a handful of elite athletes ever experience. And this latest news from his alma mater ahead of a Jan. 20 Men's Basketball home game against reigning NCAA champion Connecticut at the Wells Fargo Center is quite meaningful.
 
"I think it's great," stated Ray. "Any time you are rewarded for the work you put in as an athlete, it's special. Villanova remembers what I did and what we were able to achieve as a team. I'm always excited to be back at Villanova and this is an event I'm really looking forward to."
 
There is another aspect to this that Ray also mentions.
 
"It means Villanova recognizes what kind of person you are," he states. "You're not just being honored for what you did on the court, but for what you did in the community, how you treated people. Villanova is my family."
 
Now fully immersed in a life after basketball, the 6-2 Ray is hardly one to sit idly by. Much of his time is devoted to directing his own real estate firm (AMR) that specializes in flipping houses. It's an enterprise well-served by basic life lessons he picked up at Villanova both in the classroom and on the court under the tutelage of Jay Wright.
 
"Being patient and doing things the right way is key," Ray states. "In basketball, you can't cut corners. If you do the fundamental things the right way, you set yourself up for success. It's the same thing in real estate. You have to make sure the foundation is in place, and you can't skip steps."
 
Ray also acknowledges that he absorbed a thing or two about setbacks in his time on the Main Line. After entering Villanova in 2002 as part of one of the most decorated recruiting classes in program history that also included Randy Foye, Jason Fraser and Curtis Sumpter, the Wildcats were 33-33 in his first two seasons, appearing in back-to-back National Invitation Tournaments.
 
A specific memory harkens back to his sophomore campaign. Villanova dropped a 74-67 decision to Saint Joseph's in the Pavilion on Feb. 2, 2004. Though that Hawks team was enjoying an undefeated regular season and would ultimately advance to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, it was a stinging defeat to Ray. So much so that following the game his frustration was at a boiling point as he dialed the number of his father – also Allan Ray.
 
"I was so upset," he recalls now of that conversation. "I told him I wanted to transfer."
 
The elder Ray, however, counseled perseverance.
 
"He told me to stick with it, that I would get through it," says the son now.
 
The results were hardly instantaneous. The Wildcats had to win a pair of BIG EAST Tournament games as a lower seed over Seton Hall and Providence to climb over .500 (then the bar for NIT qualification) to even reach the postseason. But they earned a pair of NIT wins over Drexel and Virginia, setting the stage for a 2004-05 that would result in a 24-8 record and the program's first visit to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 17 years.
 
"I'm glad I followed his advice," says Ray now.
 
A year later Ray was a Naismith Player of the Year award finalist and a consensus All-American as the Wildcats delivered a 28-5 record and BIG EAST regular season title. He later played a season in the National Basketball Association for the Boston Celtics before embarking on a decade-plus career overseas.
 
Yet inside the Nova Nation, Ray's name is not merely some bookmark from a distant past. During the 2021 NCAA Tournament while watching his alma mater face Baylor, he began posting a few thoughts about the matchup on the site formerly known as Twitter (@ARayfor3). It engendered a strong and immediate reaction from Wildcats' fans in real time.
 
"I was back from Argentina and the end of my playing career," he says, "I thought I could offer a player's perspective of what was happening. It drew a lot of positive reaction from the fans and it just kind of took off from there."
 
In the years since, Ray has become a prominent voice in the social media space. This past summer, he also became one of the hosts of the Raynin' Threes podcast. Villanova fans have come to appreciate his insight.
 
"I enjoy the interactions, especially with people who are passionate about Villanova Basketball," he says. "There are a lot of knowledgeable fans out there. They may not always agree with me. I'm an optimist. I love my team. I know how hard it is to play this game at a high-level and the work that goes into it."
 
The podcast has been an especially enjoyable endeavor. It offers Ray the chance to pick the brains of former teammates, coaches, and others in basketball.
 
"I feel like I've learned a lot and I hope our listeners have too," he states.
 
Beyond his two major honors in 2024, Ray has a varied list of options before him. There is the established business in Georgia and the possibility of enhancing his profile as a basketball analyst. Or he might head in another direction once his 17-year-old son heads off to college next fall.
 
This much is clear: basketball won't be far from his thoughts. Nor will Villanova.
 
"Basketball is life," Ray says now. "The challenges, ups and downs, are what you face every day. I learned so much about working through adversity, sticking it out, from Coach Wright, the staff, my teammates and really everyone at Villanova. To be honored this way really means a lot."