As the Duke coaching staff will be the first to tell you, all of this season's five freshmen were recruited because each would bring something unique to the 2002-2003 squad, whether it be ball handling, post-play or sharp shooting.
Australian Jessica Foley was imported for the third ability. Yet, because of the emphasis placed on her nationality, the 19-year-old feels a bit more out of the ordinary, like she's taken a role on Sesame Street. You know, which one's not like the other?
"At the moment I'm being introduced like, 'Hey this is Jess and she's Australian,'" Foley said, laughing. "So, this is the reaction I get (she arches her eyebrows as her eyes grow wider): 'Oh, you're Australian?!'"
"At the moment I'm pretty popular," she said, shaking her head.
Two months into her first semester, Foley remains a novelty, even among her own teammates, some of whom still can't get enough of her Australian idiosyncrasies.
"She's really fun to hang out with because she will put something in her 'cupboard,' and we'll be like what's your cupboard, and it's her locker," senior Vicki Krapohl said, smiling. "So, little things like that... it's just fun to mess with her."
All joking aside, however, Foley's part of the nation's No. 1-ranked recruiting class for one reason only--she can play.
"What she brings to the team immediately is great outside shooting," assistant coach Gale Valley said. "When we played her team in Australia a year ago last August she torched us for 29 points. I think she made five three-pointers, so that made us notice her."
A product of the prestigious Australian Institute of Sport, Foley spent the last two years in a basketball-intensive setting unlike any preparatory high school in the United States. The AIS aspires to groom the country's best talents into future stars, and so Foley practiced year-round and routinely played in international competitions against players far older than herself.
During her stay at the AIS campus in Canberra, Foley's game developed in a different fashion from the typical American high schooler.
"It is noticeable that she's an overseas player," Krapohl said. "She plays a really good motion game, she makes great cuts and she has great court awareness. That's something that when you play a foreign team they are really good at, so you can really notice it when she's out here."
Thus far, Foley continues to impress the entire Blue Devil team--particularly with her acclimation to the rigorous training and practice schedule necessary to compete against the best in women's collegiate basketball.
"All the things we've been doing preseason here, Jessica has been doing for two years at AIS," Valley said. "So her experiences on the court and also against older players are just much more than a typical freshman coming in."
Foley senses that her international accomplishments translate into higher expectations, particularly because, as everyone is quick to point out, she should already be more used to competing against older, talented players than the typical freshman.
"I think that people are going to expect at least a certain level of experience from me, that they're going to expect someone really solid," she said. "I have been in a training environment fairly similar to this one before, so I feel that I should be able to make some sort of an impact straight away."
Easygoing and affable, Foley very much wishes to avoid the label of know-it-all veteran and claims of superiority to the other members of Duke's highly touted freshman class. Her obvious comfort level on the court and her nuanced game automatically suggest a savvy mentality, but when asked about her confidence she tries hard to keep her comments in perspective.
"I guess a lot of my friends would say I have a lot of confidence," Foley said. "I guess I have always wanted to achieve big things. I've always wanted to make it to the AIS, I've always wanted make it to America to a really good college and I've always wanted to make the Australian national team.
"Everyone knows that I'm really determined to achieve those goals. They'd say I'm really focused, but when I'm off the court and everything, I'll have a lot of fun."
Foley also realizes that finding playing time on the nation's preseason No. 1 team will be extremely difficult, as the Blue Devils simply ooze talent at all positions.
"You can only do so much to get yourself on the court," she said simply. "It [comes down] to what the coaches want and what is working.... A lot of people at home would expect that I was doing really well over here but you know, you've just got to keep training hard and hope that [playing time] will come."
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