Gunner on the Loose : Loyola’s Jeff Fryer Has the OK to Shoot Anytime, Anywhere

In many ways, Jeff Fryer is the stereotypical beach boy: blond, tanned, cheerfully laid back.

Until the Loyola Marymount guard takes the basketball floor. Then his jaw takes on a businesslike set and his blue eyes get an icy glaze, like a gunfighter of old squinting into the sun.

These are the eyes of a shooter. The eyes of a killer.

“He’s a hired gunner,” said Loyola Coach Paul Westhead. “He knows that. He fits the crucial 2-man (off guard) position in our system--shooting any time you get your hands on it. We knew he could shoot coming out of high school. We didn’t know how tough or hard-working he was.”

Fryer’s game has so exceeded expectations that his card may someday read, “Have gun, will travel.” That makes the scrappy 6-foot-2 junior work even harder.

“My high school coach always told me I’d never reach my peak, that I had unlimited potential,” Fryer recalled earlier this week. “I listened to that, and worked, and it’s paid off. I have a shooting coach who’s really pushing me--he says I have a future because of my outside shot. There’s always a place for shooters. I just have to continue to be driven.”

Fryer’s shooting has driven some opponents to distraction.

Coming off a 29-point performance last weekend against the University of San Diego in which he hit 11 of 14 shots, including four of six three-pointers, Fryer was averaging 23.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.9 three-pointers per game, and shooting 84% from the foul line. He is averaging more than 33 minutes per game, an impressive stat in Loyola’s grueling system, and he has joined a handful of past and present Loyola players in scoring 500 points in a season.

His performances include a nationally televised 42-point game against DePaul in which he canned nine of 14 three-point shots, 37 points in the following game against West Coast Athletic Conference foe Gonzaga and two other 30-point games. In his last game as a sophomore, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last March against North Carolina, he hit eight three-pointers and scored 27 points in 18 minutes.

If left open, Fryer is deadly. He often shoots from beyond the pro three-point line, legitimate 25-footers. At DePaul he hit several three-pointers in a row from so far out that when he went by the DePaul bench, Blue Demons Coach Joey Meyer jokingly told him, “Open your eyes.”

However, Fryer’s shooting comes with a price. Because he shoots so fast and from so far, and because defenses now gear up for him, Fryer is shooting only 40% for the season, 36% from three-point range. He has had a couple of off nights, highlighted by a two-for-23 game against Portland. Some who follow the team, including Fryer’s personal shooting tutor, say a shooter of his caliber should have a better percentage.

Fryer would like to, but both he and Westhead take little notice of the percentages. In Loyola’s offense, they say, Fryer’s job is to shoot and score. And he does.

Westhead said Fryer’s percentage “doesn’t bother me at all. If I’ve had any harsh words for him over the three years, it’s to shoot more. Sometimes I sense he’s hesitating. I never would question his shots.”

Fryer said the percentage “doesn’t concern me at all. . . . It doesn’t matter to me. I’m gonna keep shooting. I think I’m playing real well right now, except for a few games I’ve lost my concentration. That has caused my percentage to go down. Otherwise I’d be shooting in the upper 40s. I can’t allow myself (to let concentration lapse) anymore.”

Tom Marumoto is a Newport Beach pharmacist who took an interest in the biomechanics of shooting and tutors a handful of players, including Fryer. “He should work on his percentage,” Marumoto said. “He should be shooting 46%. Jeff has a lot of natural talent. If he works hard, he has some pro prospects. He really has to work hard in the off-season. I think this summer he’ll make the commitment. I’d like to see him hit 48%. This summer he’ll shoot 400 to 600 shots a day.”

In games, however, it’s a different proposition. And with junior Bo Kimble out of the lineup with an injury for much of the season, opponents have been waiting for Fryer in his accustomed shooting spot in the right corner. To counter, Fryer has had to drive more and shoot on the run, and sometimes force shots in traffic.

“This year almost every team is really gearing up for him,” Westhead said. “He’ll be 30 feet away from the basket, and there’ll be somebody face-guarding him. They’re sending a lot of people at him. He’s experiencing the results of his reputation. That has caused him to put the ball on the floor more and shoot off the dribble, which is not necessarily what he does best. All that affects his percentage. His degree of difficulty has gone up. Surprisingly, so has his scoring average. It’s really a compliment to him.”

Fryer said, “In the off season I worked on my driving more--I knew teams and players would force me to. I think I’ve improved a lot in that. I’ve started to go to the boards a lot more. I’ve just become a lot more aggressive; I’ve matured as a player. A lot of teams are waiting for me (in the right corner) because they know what I do. We have plays to counter that, when they jump me like that. Coach has told me sometimes to let it happen; my points will come. So I just kinda have that attitude.”

Fryer came out of Corona del Mar High as Orange County’s leading prep scorer. He averaged 28.6 points per game as a senior--before the high schools instituted the three-point shot.

His father, Steve, an Orange County businessman who attends virtually every game, wanted his son to go to nearby UC Irvine. So far, Fryer’s decision has been the right one. He has progressed from a spot starter as a freshman to one of the key shooters as a sophomore to a featured scorer this season.

“This has been the perfect place for me,” Fryer said. “There’s no limits on my shooting, just like high school. I always felt Coach Westhead had a lot of faith in me. I knew he liked the way I played because I work real hard. He really likes that.”

Fryer was Westhead’s first true recruit at Loyola, and the coach recalls that Fryer seemed to have a grasp on Loyola’s future. “The thing I remember most was he asked me if the NCAA would have the three-point shot,” Westhead said. “I said no way. Then out of the blue, they added the (three-point) rule the next week. It’s like he was psychic. I called him and said, ‘Your stock just went up.’ He had terrific range as a shooter in high school.”

Fryer averaged 8.3 points as a freshman, missing the end of the season with a stress fracture in his leg. Last year, starting 15 of 32 games, he increased his scoring average to 12.6 points and led the team in three-pointers with 86.

But from the start, the aspect Westhead liked was Fryer’s constant hustle, that determined look in his eyes. Belying Loyola’s reputation for ignoring defense, Fryer tenaciously hounds his man, chases the ball and dives on the floor.

“I try to be relentless on defense and never get lazy,” he said. “You get real tired. It’s easy to just say, ‘This time I’m gonna rest on defense.’ Every time, you have to push through and say, ‘I have a little more energy.’ You find you do.”

Westhead recalled a game last year at San Francisco where Fryer blocked out a larger player trying to rebound and was so energetic about it that he practically backed the bigger man into the stands. “He just railroaded this 6-9 guy out of the gym. Nobody could believe it,” Westhead said.

“He just kind of jumped in and started working hard as a freshman. He has never stopped working. He’s a tireless guy, especially on defense. That’s not usually the style of a shooter. He really engages in it. He goes harder every day; he goes till his legs give out.”

Last summer he was cut in tryouts for a team in a pro-am league. So he played in an Orange County league, where he averaged 25 points per game. He said he used his lack of respect as motivation. He continues to surprise people.

“I’ve kinda surpassed my expectations, especially this year, and the way we won (the conference title) last year,” he admitted. “I don’t have the greatest jumping ability or speed, but I’ve got my shot. I still don’t think I’ve reached my peak yet.”