Randy Foye
On the last timehe wore a tuxedo
Homecoming andsenior prom [at East Side High in Newark]. I came in second place forhomecoming king to some kid who I think was on the soccer team. But I knew Iwasn't going to win. He wasn't more popular than me, but he had more lady fansat the time.
On whom besidesthe Wildcats he likes in the Big Dance
North Carolina.They're young, but they have talent. Five freshmen at Michigan [in 1992] wentto the finals. I think they [UNC] can do it. It's going to be a crazytournament.
On what makesVillanova's four-guard offense work
It's like we useit to mess with people. We play against two forwards most of the game with thefour-guard offense, so there's always going to be two good mismatches[offensively]. It's usually with me and Mike Nardi. We're smaller and quickerthan the guys guarding us.
On team jokester,guard Allan Ray
Allan will getpictures of animals and cartoon characters and e-mail them to the team and say,"Randy Foye, this is you!" or "Jason Fraser, this is you!" Theother day he sent out a picture of two chipmunks and said it was me andhim.
On growing up inNewark
Newark is tough.I grew up in the hood. Gangs, drugs, a lot of negative things happening. Myfather died when I was three, and my mom disappeared when I was 5 1/2. So Ilived back and forth between my grandmothers. I will never forget where I'mfrom. That made me me--made me so tough, so relentless.
On adjusting tothe culture at college
At Villanova themajority of people are white, and until my junior year I wasn't able to relate.But now I've seen everything, I can relate to everything. If I watch ComedyCentral and there's a white comedian up there, I understand what he's saying.It's funny to me now.
On why he majoredin geography
The firstsemester of my freshman year I took a geography class and had to do apresentation two weeks into school. I never really get nervous for a big game,but I was nervous for this. I tried to talk so fast. I had the paper over myface, but I pulled it down a bit so you could see my eyes. The funny thing was,after class my teacher said I did a good job. That's when I decided to major ingeography.
On playing in theNBA next year
Everybody bringsit to my attention because agents are always snooping around. I don't thinkabout it because when you do, you start having trouble: You could go into aslump or something. Agents tell players to score more, and you can't listen tothat.
On the 1985Villanova NCAA championship team
A lot of theplayers come around. Dwayne McClain is always joking, saying, "If our teamplayed your team, we'd kick your butt!" And Coach [Ed] Pinckney is alwaystalking [trash]. But they say that they see something in us that they saw inthemselves. --As told to Julia Morrill
FOYE, THE BIGEAST PLAYER OF THE YEAR, SCORES 20.1 PPG FOR THE TOP-SEEDED WILDCATS.
• For more fromthe Foye interview, go to SI.com/Players.
PHOTO
Photograph by Michael J. LeBrecht II/1dDeuce3 Photography