Wolves not rushing Foye's return

In Randy Foye's case, no pain means more gain.

By KENT YOUNGBLOOD, Star Tribune

Last update: January 15, 2008 - 11:49 PM

In Randy Foye's case, no pain means more gain.

His left knee still pain-free, Foye will continue to ratchet up his activities with the Timberwolves in the next week or two on his way back from a stress reaction in his kneecap that has kept him on the sideline all season.

"So far, so good," Foye said Monday, after taking part in all parts of practice except the full five-on-five, full-contact work. That's not to say there wasn't contact; Foye ran into Antoine Walker a couple of times during drills, but there was no problem.

"There have been no problems so far," coach Randy Wittman said of Foye, who was cleared a week ago to start taking limited part in practice.

So what's next? There is a chance Foye could start taking part in some full-contact drills Wednesday or Thursday. If all is going well, he could accompany the team on its three-game trip, which starts Friday in Phoenix and ends Monday at Golden State.

Wittman said he would meet with team doctors at some point today -- either before or after the Wolves' game with the Warriors at Target Center -- to decide on a schedule for Foye.

The Wolves are determined not to rush the second-year guard. And that means Foye is almost certainly not going to see any game action for two weeks.

Foye has been doing a lot of running and shooting in recent days. Starting today at shootaround, he plans to do more planting and pushing off his left leg. If it holds up, the only question will be when his conditioning gets back to 100 percent.

Noah's arc

Wolves rookie Corey Brewer can empathize with what Joakim Noah -- his old teammate at Florida -- is going through in Chicago. At least to a certain extent. Both were key parts of back-to-back NCAA champions. Both got used to winning but have had to deal with a lot of losing as NBA rookies.

But Noah's rookie year has had a bit more drama, given word that his teammates voted that Noah be benched in the wake of his confrontation with assistant coach Ron Adams. Brewer, who has regular contact with Noah, had this advice for his old friend:

"I just talked to him, and I told him to keep his head up," Brewer said Monday. "It's a tough situation for him, but you have to work through it. He has to start from scratch [with his teammates] there now. But he can do it. He's a good guy."

As for dealing with losing games? That has been a regular subject in calls between the two. "We just try to keep each other's spirits up," Brewer said. "It's going to get better, because it can't get no worse."