Guard Play Leads Villanova Into Top Five

Turns out opponents aren’t the only ones having problems handling Allan Ray and Randy Foye. The two Villanova guards do quite a number on each other in practice.

“It got to a point where Coach didn’t want me and Randy to guard each other anymore,” Ray said. “He had to move us on to different guys. It’s just so intense, the guards going at each other in practice. It’s just brutal.”

Those kinds of efforts are best reserved for game days, where Ray and Foye, along with Mike Nardi and Kyle Lowry, have given the fourth-ranked Wildcats (20-2, 10-1 Big East) more than a unique four-guard starting lineup. They’ve lifted the Wildcats to a return to national prominence and given them a legitimate shot at the national championship.

The four guards range from 6 feet to 6-4, which gives hope to teams with a beefy frontcourt that they can exploit the absence of a true big man and choke off the lane to prevent penetration.

Instead, the Wildcats have simply proven too quick to cover man to man and they shoot too well to use a zone. Someone is always hot, so stopping one or two of those undersized stars leaves two others to thrive.

“We’re never worried about off nights, because we’ve got guys who can fill it up,” Ray said.

Do they ever.

Foye, Ray and Lowry could each make a legitimate case for Big East player-of-the-year honors and All-American consideration. They somehow all get their points, yet they’re each very unselfish, leaving teams wondering how they can ever catch up with the feisty four.

“They just see the four guards running up and down fast and scoring,” Foye said.

Take Monday’s win against No. 1 Connecticut. Slashing and crashing like a mini Allen Iverson, the 6-foot Lowry found ways to drive to the basket and scored 16 points in the first half against Connecticut’s big frontline.

When Connecticut clogged the lane in the second half, Ray settled in from the outside and hit five three-pointers in a 22-4 run that helped give the Wildcats their first win over a top-ranked team in nearly 11 years.

“There’s no one in the country that has guard play like them, and they’re a very difficult team to stop,” said Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun.

Wildcat Coach Jay Wright -- who just signed a seven-year extension -- laughs at the idea that he’s reinventing any great basketball philosophies by starting four guards. He simply didn’t see any other option when injury cost the Wildcats perhaps their most versatile player.

Not that he’s complaining about the results.

When Wildcat forward Curtis Sumpter tore his ACL in a second-round NCAA tournament game against Florida, Wright said his best option for a round of 16 game against North Carolina was starting his four fast and fantastic guards.

The Wildcats nearly pulled the win out, but Villanova still planned on starting this season with a traditional lineup. When Sumpter tore the ACL again in the preseason, probably knocking him out for the season, Wright decided to stick Lowry in the lineup at point and shift Nardi to the traditional shooting guard role.

“If I had four guards like this again, I would do it. But this was really born out of necessity,” Wright said.

The rugged Big East was supposed to wear the quartet down. Instead, they’ve hardly missed a step and have shown no signs of tiring or slumping.

Foye averages 20 points, Ray 18.9, Nardi 11.7 and Lowry 11.5 overall and they’ve each averaged at least 30 minutes in conference play.

Lowry did not start one game for disciplinary reasons, and Nardi sat out two games because of tonsillitis. Will Sheridan started all 22 games at the power forward/center spot and averages 4.9 points.

“Allan’s got that great scorer’s mentality,” Wright said. “He’s different than the three of them. The four of them, tough, are very unselfish.”

Although the 6-8 Sheridan is Villanova’s leading rebounder, all four guards know they have to be aggressive, crash the boards and follow their shot. There’s no such thing as backpedaling after a jumper because they have to do something to compensate for the size mismatches.

“If they try and play us big, one of the main things we’re going to have to do is defend and get out there and rebound,” Ray said. “That’s one of the focal points this year is rebounding more than anything.”

NBA scouts fill media row every game to check out seniors Ray and Foye. They know they have the talent to play at the next level and it would be easy for them to take all the shots and go for the personal glory.

Instead, Wright has two of the most team-oriented stars he could have asked for and Villanova is back among the elite.

“It’s really been an experiment to this point,” Wright said. “So far, it’s been working out.”