Hungry and Humble

With three quarters of the Timberwolves season in the books, you've seen a lot of Randy Foye. Through both game-winning shots and scoreless nights, the Wolves 2006 first-round pick has remained confident, calm, and collected.

As a basketball player, those are c-words you love. As a person, those are the foundations of a strong character. To better understand Randy, rewind to his childhood, where he first learned whom he could trust.

His father fell victim to a fatal motorcycle accident when Randy was three, and his mother left him and his younger brother for good just a few years later in a tough, low-income New Jersey neighborhood. That's the nutshell.

"I really don't blame what happened on anyone, it was just unfortunate to lose two parents," said Foye. "But I think everything happens for a reason, and it only made me a stronger person. I don't think I'd be here today if it happened differently."

Enter his grandmother, Ruth Martin. That's where it started for Randy, and she's been his rock ever since.

"My grandmother was my everything growing up," explained Foye. "Other family members helped out, but she was the main influence. I just tried to learn as much as I could, all the little things that she was trying to teach me. She taught me how to be a man."

"I have a lot of respect for what he and his grandmother got through," said fellow Wolves rookie and close friend Craig Smith. "I can't imagine growing up without my mother. But he fought through it."

Foye keeps a particularly intimate circle, made necessary by having his trust betrayed so early in his life, but basketball has been a catalyst in expanding that circle and getting him where he is. From East Newark, to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis...and into the future.

EAST NEWARK
"My little circle of people is who I trust," said Foye. "I don't change it."

The Big East POY averaged 21 points, 6 boards and 3 dimes as a senior

Certain people saw dollar signs at the end of an athlete like Foye's level, and wanted to be close to him. It happens. But Foye was able to recognize who in his community cared about him, and who became "interested" once they realized his talent. He just played.

"It was all about competition to me," said Foye. "Any sport. If there was a challenge I was there. Basketball was one of the sports, along with football, baseball...whatever."

When Bo Jackson was making commercials, Foye was playing in the Newark streets. Foye knew football. Foye knew basketball. Foye knew baseball. He had no idea how good he was until talent scouts told him so. Bring on AAU basketball, where he started to run with the renowned Sandy Pyonin's New Jersey RoadRunners (alumni include Dahntay Jones and Al Harrington). Foye improved as a player and traveled across the country, but it was at his high school (East Side, Newark) where he started to build his basketball identity.

"High school was big for me, because even though I was one of the best guards in the state, I didn't have the best team," stated Foye. "I wanted to get recognized because of what I did for the team."

After an excellent career, he earned N.J. Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2002, and was 100% sure he was going to Seton Hall - just 10 minutes away - to play for Tommy Amaker and assistant Fred Hill. But when Amaker left for Michigan, Foye followed Hill to Villanova, where Jay Wright had just been hired from Hofstra.

PHILLY
"Oh man. We still talk every other day. I look at coach Wright as being a father."

Foye and 'Nova head man Wright just clicked.

"Every one of my players is like a son, but Randy is just so bright and intuitive," said Wright. "He embraced and appreciated the family atmosphere probably more than anybody."

Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright and Randy

Dig a littler deeper, and find how important it was for a kid who lost his father at age three to find another at age 18.

"I take the responsibility in that way very seriously," explained Wright. "His not having a father, I knew I had to be careful about what I said, because he took everything so intently."

"It was really a unique coaching experience, and one of the most fulfilling of my life. I knew how much he cared about me, and how much he valued the relationship."

After seeing Foye play for the RoadRunners, Wright agreed with Hill that Foye was the guy they needed to get, even though classmates Jason Frazier and Curtis Sumpter were more highly touted. "Fred said right away that while people didn't really know a lot about Foye, he was the best," Wright said.

A few hours drive away, Craig Smith was just beginning his career at Boston College. "Randy was the one that always stood out, starting freshman year. He was the guy that got them going."

Indeed, Foye was physically and mentally ready to start as a freshman. The cool, calm demeanor that Foye wears in an NBA fourth quarter today is the same he possessed as a freshman.

"I think that's a gift that he has," Wright said. "Great composure in every situation on and off the court. Right away, you'd watch him and swear from his body language that he was a senior."

Still, Wright had to push Foye to be more assertive during his first two seasons: "He was too unselfish, and would only look for his shot if we were down. Then midway through his junior year he just started taking over."

Especially as a senior: 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.20 steals per game; Big East Player of the Year; and a place among Naismith and Wooden Award finalists. During the NCAA tournament he was even better, averaging 23.7 points in an Elite Eight run, including a cold-blooded 29 in a win over Smith's Boston College team in the Sweet 16. Villanova would lose to eventual champ Florida, just as they'd done the year before in the Sweet 16 to Rashad McCants' UNC squad.

Randy wasn't nearly satisfied.

"The first thing I want is a team goal, or the championship," he says. "If you take care of things as a team, then the individual accolades pile up. I learned that when I was young."

BROTHERS
"We're definitely like brothers. He comes to my house and hangs out, I go to his house to hang out. We built a friendship before we got to Minneapolis, which made it so much easier."

Foye and Smith always had a mutual respect for each other. "Other guys would say things to each other in the rivalry, but he and I always had the eye-to-eye contact that said enough," said Smith.

Randy + Craig = Brothers

They both had dreams of the NBA, and collectively sensed that they might be teammates some day. After three years littered with Big East battles, Craig and Randy got picked for the University Games in Turkey. They ended up being roommates, even talking to each other's girls on the phone.

Little did they know that they'd have one game against each other in the 2006 NCAA Tournament that would end one of their four-year college careers. Both were tremendous in the matchup, and Foye's 'Cats emerged victorious. However, Villanova was out in the next round, so both careers ended in Minneapolis. Who knew that they'd be returning after the summer?

MINNEAPOLIS
"When I finish my career, I don't want to be looked at like the player who went 7th in the draft. I want people to say that he won championships, that he's an All-Star, and that he's a great teammate."

Foye was selected 7th overall by the Celtics, who immediately traded his drafts rights to Portland. The Trail Blazers then traded those rights to the Wolves for the rights to Brandon Roy. Since arriving in town, Foye has shown flashes of brilliance in what has been a tough year for the Timberwolves.

There was the leaning, on-the-move game-winning hoop against Chicago with 1.6 seconds remaining *(Foye Burns Chicago); or the suspended-in-air double OT tip-in to seal a win over the Lakers **(Wolves Out-Swim Lakers in 2OT). What about his 25-point performance in his first NBA start against Phoenix, or the fourth quarters of Minnesota's last two wins in which he scored 27 points in the final period. In fact, Foye has scored 319 of his 646 total points in the fourth quarter and overtime (49 percent).

However, perhaps the most telling moment in Foye's rookie campaign was more a testament to his nature than his basketball skills. After Minnesota's biggest victory of the year over a Phoenix Suns team that had won 17 straight games, Randy was asked if he was excited. Every other player on the team, including Kevin Garnett, acknowledged what a great win it was. Foye's response?

A shrug.

He has that same even-keeled expression on his face after a loss.

"If it's not the championship, I'm not going to be all happy," said Foye after that Suns game. "I might go out and eat and have a good time, but I'm not celebrating. We still have a job to do, and I'm still trying to get better."

Sure, it's surprising to see that kind of attitude from a rookie. Well, to most people...

"I know how focused he is on what it takes to be great and special," said coach Wright. "He really looks up to Kevin Garnett that way. He tells me a lot about KG's work ethic, KG's professionalism. That's why I say he has a great instinct for whom to listen to and whom to trust.

Foye has scored 49% of his points in the fourth quarter and overtime this season

"He repeats to me all the time lessons that Kevin Garnett and Kevin McHale teach him, and I can tell that Randy takes it to heart. They talk to him about being special, being unique and being a champion."

THE FUTURE
"As a person I want people to look at me and say that I'm a good kid. That I always work hard, that I always do what I could do to help the team win, and he's a good guy to hang around. You can always go up to him and shake his hand."

While Foye's instincts have helped him seek out people like Garnett, McHale, Wright and his grandmother, Randy is now blazing his own trail.

"It's my life now," he says. "I'm not looking for the support of anyone else. I'm just looking to move along with my life and make sure I'm successful."

There is a phrase that serves as a helpful reminder...

"Randy and I use a term together that we always talk about, and it's 'stay hungry and humble,'" said Wright. "Sometimes I'll see him have a good game and know he's feeling good, I'll call him up and say it.'"

Hungry and humble. Grandma can be proud of that.