Frieder Heats Up Again in the Desert : Arizona State: Burned out at Michigan, he has brought top recruits and victories to Sun Devils in a hurry.

It seemed appropriate that Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” washed over the crowd as it filed out of Arizona State’s University Activity Center.

The big time in basketball is the aspiration at Arizona State, where last March Coach Bill Frieder was spirited away from Michigan to lead the way.

“It Can Happen . . . ,” read the posters hanging around campus.

In time, Frieder says.

“It’s going to get done,” said the hyperkinetic coach. “And I think here, the people are going to be excited when it happens.”

And, he implied, they will appreciate him when it does.

According to Frieder, that wasn’t the case at Michigan, where he built a program that usually resided among the nation’s top 20 but was forced to endure questions from fans and reporters as to why none of his talented teams ever made it to the Final Four.

Fed up, Frieder took the job at Arizona State last March 15, abandoning his Wolverines on the eve of the NCAA tournament, although it was his intent to coach them through it. But Bo Schembechler, the athletic director at the time, said that Frieder’s services would not be required further.

It wouldn’t have seemed so bad if Michigan, led by interim Coach Steve Fisher, hadn’t marched through the tournament.

But when the Wolverines beat Seton Hall in the Kingdome last April, Frieder became known as the coach who walked out on the national champions.

As such, he remains an enigma.

How’s he doing at ASU?

Couldn’t be happier.

His Sun Devils, who play UCLA tonight at Pauley Pavilion, are 8-4 and have won eight of their last nine games, having lost only to top-ranked Kansas in the last month. A winning season would be Arizona State’s first since 1983.

Last November, he and his assistants, including former head coaches Lynn Archibald of Utah and George McQuarn of Cal State Fullerton, signed a recruiting class of five players that was ranked among the nation’s top five.

According to reports, ASU made the recruiting effort worth his time, too. Frieder reportedly has a clause in his contract that pays him $20,000 if his recruiting class is ranked among the top 10.

And another top recruit, forward Ed O’Bannon of Artesia High in Lakewood, is also reportedly considering Arizona State.

Other incentives in Frieder’s contract reportedly could make the four-year deal worth as much as $700,000 a year.

In the University Activity Center, the locker room was renovated, as Frieder requested, at a cost of about $125,000. A new scorer’s table and new baskets were installed, and the floor was refurbished. A computer system was installed in Frieder’s office.

And, as ASU has thrown money into the program, Frieder has thrown himself into his work.

His wife, Janice, said that her husband, never described as anything less than tireless, has been revitalized in the desert.

“It’s like it was when he first went to Michigan,” she said. “I see a new energy.”

At Michigan, she said, Frieder’s candle almost burned out.

“Bill’s usually a very up person, but last year toward the end of the season, I noticed that he just wasn’t himself,” she said. “He wasn’t happy, he wasn’t exuberant. He just wasn’t the same as he had been in the past. He didn’t have the drive.

“At one point, I told him, ‘Bill, with the amount of money you’re making and the team you have, there’s something wrong. You either need to see a counselor or find yourself a new position. When you’re in this type of situation, you should really be a happy individual.’ But he wasn’t.”

The second-guessing at Michigan wore him down, Frieder said.

“That’s why I left,” he added. “The last two or three years, I did not enjoy it. When you’re 96-10 at home over a six-year period, you should be enjoying it. If you don’t enjoy being 96-10 at home in six years, you’d better leave.”

Is he revitalized?

“You’ve got to work when you come into a situation like this,” he said. “I had it made back there. I had the program going. We had recruits wanting to come to Michigan. I was in the position where I’d pick up the phone and I’d tell you, ‘You’ve got until Tuesday to make a decision. Are you coming or not?’ So, it was much easier once we got it going.

“Now, it’s back to the grindstone. We’ve got to work. I’m working a lot harder than I did the last two or three years.”

Selling Arizona State has not been difficult, Frieder said, despite the Sun Devils’ lack of success in the last decade.

“I don’t want to offend anybody and I don’t want to criticize anybody, but it’s amazing to me that this place has not won since the 1982-83 season, with its facilities, the school, the area, the campus, the weather,” he said.

“It’s incredible that this program has not won.”

But it will start winning, Frieder added. Another beast will rise out of the Arizona desert to challenge Lute Olson’s Arizona program as the best in the state and one of the best in the country.

“People ask me about Lute all the time,” he said. “It shows you how stupid people are. (They say) ‘How can you have a good program if Lute has a good program at Arizona?’ That’s why we can have a good program.

“Lute proved that it could be done in the state of Arizona. We’ve got every bit the facilities and tradition they have. We’ve got a great area. We’ve got the same climate.

“So, if he’s done it at Arizona, that gives me an indication that we can do it here. I had seven or eight Lutes in the Big Ten.”

There was only one Bill Frieder, though, and now the Pac-10 has him.