One tough 'Cat

Randy Foye doesn't quite remember his father, Antonio, who died in a motorcycle accident when Randy was 3 years old. "I just remember [being told] we couldn't pay for his funeral," Foye says. "The city had to bury him. I don't even think he had a suit on."

Foye does faintly recall the day his mother, Regina, showed up at his kindergarten graduation in Newark, N.J. A few months later, Regina mysteriously disappeared and has since been presumed dead. "To this day," Randy says, "I don't really know what happened to her."

How does someone like Randy Foye go from orphan to All-America? There is no simple answer. Though Foye, a 6-foot-3 senior guard at Villanova, and his younger brother Christopher grew up without parents, they were surrounded by loving relatives -- especially two grandmothers -- who shuttled the boys from place to place amidst the poverty and violence of their neighborhood in North Newark. Randy also had a strong support network that included his basketball coach, the vice principal at Newark's East Side High, his AAU coach with the New Jersey Roadrunners, and a local teacher nicknamed "Z," whom Randy refers to as his God-brother.

Had any of those people been leeches or hustlers, Randy's life could have taken a turn for the worse. Then again, it's no coincidence that they were not. Because what saved Randy most of all was his uncanny knack for assessing people's character, combined with an unwavering loyalty toward those who meant him well. "I really think Randy was born with a sense that of a lot us don't have," says Villanova coach Jay Wright. "He just has a unique talent to know who he should trust. Even the people I see him hanging out with at Villanova are good people who have a positive influence on him."

Foye also has considerable talents on the basketball court, where he has established himself as one of the top five players in America. Though he had a subpar outing (13 points on 3-of-17 shooting) in Villanova's 58-55 loss at Texas on Saturday, Foye is the biggest reason the Wildcats are 11-2 and ranked No. 8 in this week's AP poll.

He has the playmaking skills of a point guard (3.4 assists per game), but because he is so strong and athletic, Foye is also leading Villanova in rebounding (5.4) as well as scoring (20.6). These myriad skills enable Wright to use Foye as the key component in Villanova's four-guard motion offense. No matter who is guarding him, Foye can create a mismatch, which opens up shooting opportunities and driving lanes for his teammates.

"Foye is the best player we've played against," says Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson, who watched Foye light up his Sooners for 32 points in a 85-74 loss on Dec. 3. "There are a lot of one-trick ponies out there who think they're great. Foye is good from behind the 3-point line, he's good at the rim and he's good in between. And like all their players, he's very, very tough."

Growing up in North Newark, Foye had no choice but to be tough. "It was every man for himself," he says. "Even my cousins used to test me. They'd get someone to mess with you to see if you were tough or if you were a punk. I always used to say, 'I'm not gonna start no trouble, but if you want to fight me, we can fight.'" According to Foye, there was often heavy gang activity in the area. "They used to say, 'You're either gonna get down or you're gonna lay down,'" he says.

Foye managed to avoid trouble thanks partly to the precocious basketball skills he showed as early as the fifth grade. "I was blessed because they showed me respect," he says of the gangs. Rutgers assistant Fred Hill, a former Villanova assistant coach who recruited Foye, once approached a man on a street corner after visiting Randy's home. "The guy had a pit bull on one side of him and he was drinking out of a brown bag," Hill says. "I said to him, 'Make sure my guy stays out of trouble.' He said, 'No one messes with Randy in this neighborhood.'"

Once Foye started playing for East Side High and excelling on the AAU circuit, he gained considerable attention. He also attracted blandishments from rival coaches who wanted him to switch teams. Foye turned them all away, even after his high school team was depleted following an academic scandal involving transfer students from Africa. "My phone was ringing off the hook," Foye says. "People would just show up at my house and try to get me to come play with them, but I didn't want to go with someone who just wanted me around to win games. So I kept a tight circle."