Randy Foye and Allan Ray are the most dynamic duo since Batman and Robin.

And because they have been the chief architects of Villanova’s 27-4 season, there was no reason not to rely on them for a two-step in the Big Dance. Villanova won the battle of Wildcats on Sunday, outlasting Arizona 82-78 to advance to the Sweet 16 in the Minneapolis regional against Boston College.
It was very much a Villanova house at the Wachovia Center, with 20,050 fans serving as a home crowd for the school whose campus is 20 miles away.Much has been made about Villanova’s ability to negotiate its way to a No. 1 seed despite playing with a short, four-guard lineup all season because of injuries. But at crunch time Sunday, the Wildcats counted on their two future NBA guards, the 6-foot-2-inch Ray (25 points) and the 6-4 Foye (24).

“It’s not many times all year you’re going to see that kind of quickness,” Arizona guard Mustafa Shakur said of his two playground and summer-league acquaintances. “You can’t simulate that in practice.”

Villanova, the fourth No. 1 seed to stay alive in the NCAA tournament, defies the belief that basketball is a big man’s game.

The Wildcats’ guards squirt between, slip around and duck under taller foes. Against Arizona, Foye and Ray each also nailed four three-pointers.

“Coach just called our number and we just tried to make a play,” Foye said.

Foye scored 20 points in the first half and Ray scored 20 in the second half. Foye, the Big East’s player of the year, only took five shots in the second half, passing off to Ray and forward Will Sheridan (7-for-8, 16 points) for open shots.

“That right there summarizes Randy Foye’s game,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “He will do whatever it takes to win.”

No. 8 seed Arizona (20-13) had coped with a difficult season complicated by suspensions and injuries, but it seemed to be peaking.

Freshman forward Marcus Williams (24 points) and guards Shakur (21) and Hassan Adams (20) gave Arizona hope Sunday, but it never led.

Arizona crept within two points three times in the last 1 minute 37 seconds. Each time Villanova retaliated. Ray knocked down four free throws in the last 14.2 seconds.

“It just gets to one play here or one play there,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “Those guards are very, very tough.”

Literary adventurers would identify him as the Fifth Musketeer. To football historians, he is the equivalent of the Fifth Horseman. In terms of musical groups, he is the Fifth Ace, the Fifth Lad, the Fifth Prep, the Fifth Top and the Fifth Season.

The reason Will Sheridan is not an outsider on his Villanova team is that he is the lone inside presence among a cast of perimeter players.

He is tall where they are short, strong where they are vulnerable and the immovable object that complements their irresistible force. The Wildcats may have assembled the greatest quartet of guards in college basketball but they wouldn’t have reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament without him.

“He’s always doing the dirty work,” coach Jay Wright said of his 6-8, 238-pound junior forward. “He keeps battling and battling. Will Sheridan is everything that Villanova basketball is about.”

Still, the honors go elsewhere. To Randy Foye, All-America. To Allan Ray, All-Big East first team. To Kyle Lowry, All-Big East second team.

Even Mike Nardi, Sheridan’s slender 6-2 classmate, receives more attention for his three-point percentage, the best on the team, and his skill in utilizing the strengths of the other guards. It’s as if a media blackout has been declared on Sheridan.

“I don’t mind,” he said last weekend when Villanova (27-4) defeated Monmouth and Arizona to qualify for a regional semifinal tomorrow night against Boston College (28-7) in Minneapolis. “I hate being interviewed. I like not being on camera. I’m not content as a player because I want to get better. But I am comfortable with where I am.”

Even Wright concedes he has overlooked Sheridan at times, citing his failure to mention his 10 rebounds against Monmouth in a game where the Wildcats’ shooting was subpar.

Sheridan earned more than passing attention Sunday when the Arizona big men attempted to shut down the lane against Villanova’s penetrating guards, allowing Sheridan to position himself for layups and short turnarounds. He shot 7-for-8 and scored 16 points, his second-highest output of the season. “I definitely like to come through for my teammates,” he said afterward.

But he doesn’t expect that one performance to change the thrust of the Wildcats’ offense. After all, Foye and Ray totaled 49 points in the victory.

“There are four great guards on my team and it’s an honor and privilege to play with these guys,” he said. “I feel I play a pivotal role. I rebound, screen, hit some open shots. I try to complement the four guards as much as possible.”

Sheridan doesn’t envy their skills or their awards. He is a realist who never dreamed of being a playmaker, of having the game in his hands with the clock running down.

“Maybe if I was from New York, I’d be a guard,” he said with a smile. “I wanted to be a shooter. But in Delaware, I was always the tallest person I knew. So I always played in the post.”

Limited in his on-court movements, he demonstrated his versatility in high school, where he also played baseball and the saxophone, ran cross country, worked on the stage crew and served as a class president. An English and communications major at Villanova, he has performed in talent shows and was an orientation counselor at the start of the school year.

“I wake up a different person every day,” he recently told the Bucks County Courier Times. Yet to Wright and his teammates, he is as dependable as the sun. His value was enhanced after star forward Curtis Sumpter suffered a season-ending knee injury in early November and center Jason Fraser’s balky knees reduced his effectiveness.

That Sheridan signed with Villanova despite the presence of those two formidable frontcourt players said a lot about his maturity.

“I didn’t come with any expectation of playing time,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be easy. I had a good relationship with the coaching staff and it was close enough for my parents to get to the games.”

His parents, Will Sr. and Josie, work for the New Castle County Police Department. Fittingly, Sheridan has become the long arm of the law for the .Wildcats, their last line of defense, the blue-collar specialist in Villanova blue.

Before he took off the red uniform for the last time, Hassan Adams had something to say.

“We came together more in these last two games than any team I’ve played for in my four years at Arizona,” Adams said.

“Every player on this team laid it on the line, 100 percent. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Arizona lost to Philadelphia’s hometown favorite, Villanova 82-78 on Sunday in a classic of a second-round NCAA Tournament game.

Had it known a game like this could happen so early in the tournament - smack dab in the hometown of the No. 1 seed - the selection committee might have given the Wildcats a break. It might not have put them behind the 8-ball with an eight seed.

“We had home court tonight, I feel a little guilty,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

“We love playing at home. It was an advantage, it really was. Being in Philadelphia, being at home, we were comfortable in the locker room, we were comfortable on the bench.

“We had all the advantages - No. 1 seed playing at home, the crowd, everyone talking about going to Minneapolis.”

Arizona coach Lute Olson called it “a great college basketball game,” and he was right.

Villanova’s lightning-quick, four-guard attack would light it up and pull ahead by six, eight points. . . . and the Arizona species of Wildcats would battle back, fang and claw.

A 12-5 UA run sliced the lead to 76-74 with 1:37 remaining. But a field goal by Randy Foye, who scored 24, and four straight free throws by Allan Ray, who wound up with 25, was just too much for Arizona.

“Our guys gave it everything they had,” Olson said. “But that’s a very good, very unselfish Villanova team. You saw two teams out there battling for all they were worth.”

Olson seemed reluctant to talk about Villanova’s home court advantage, other than to say it was a factor.

“No matter what you say, it will sound like sour grapes,” Olson said. “But this is a great tournament, and I think that’s something the committee needs to take a look at.

“I don’t want for a second to make that sound like it cost us the game. In fact, our guys don’t care who the crowd is yelling for as much as the noise itself. We faced the same thing a year ago when we played Illinois in Chicago. But if the NCAA is going to have a level playing field, they have to be careful with that sort of thing.”