In His Second Season, Frieder Eyes First Place : Arizona State: For Sun Devils, who play UCLA tonight, turnabout has been quicker than expected.

When he was hired away from Michigan two years ago, it was generally assumed that Bill Frieder would revitalize the Arizona State basketball program.

But not this quickly.

“It Can Happen . . . ,” was ASU’s rallying cry last season.

In time, Frieder warned.

Then, in their first season under the eccentric, hyperkinetic coach, the overachieving Sun Devils knocked off top-seeded Oregon State in the Pacific 10 Conference postseason tournament, lost by a point the next night to UCLA and gained a berth in the National Invitation Tournament.

This season, with an influx of talent supplied by a coach whose reputation as a recruiter has always outstripped his standing as a strategist, Arizona State is enjoying its best start since the 1980-81 season, when a team led by Byron Scott, Fat Lever and Alton Lister won 19 of its first 21 games.

The Sun Devils were 10-2, including victories over Kansas, New Mexico, Texas and Washington, as Frieder put them through two-a-day workouts this week in preparation for tonight’s game against seventh-ranked UCLA (12-1) in the University Activity Center.

NIT, be damned. Arizona State’s goal this season is the NCAA tournament.

And the new rallying cry?

” . . . The Winning is Just Beginning,” read the posters.

But that has already been updated to: “It’s Happening.”

Is Frieder ahead of schedule?

“I would say we’ve made a lot of progress in a couple of years,” he said. “Whether we’re ahead of or behind schedule, I don’t know. I don’t even know where we are or where we’re going to end up this year. I do know we’ve established a lot of credibility, caused a lot of excitement . . .

“We wanted to develop a program that was competitive and wouldn’t go out and embarrass the university, and I think we’ve done that. I think we can maintain that. Whether we can get into the NCAA tournament every year, that’s still to be determined. But I’m happy with our progress.”

So are many others.

The Sun Devils earned a standing ovation after losing to Arizona last season, 70-61, in a hard-fought battle at Tempe. Attendance in the 14,287-seat University Activity Center last season was up by almost 2,300 a game from the previous season--to an average of 6,994--and it increased by another 300 last month, when ASU drew record crowds to its holiday tournament.

As of Wednesday, fewer than 2,000 tickets remained for tonight’s game, fewer than 3,000 for Sunday’s game against USC. And next week’s game against Arizona was expected to sell out.

“There’s much more enthusiasm (among) the fans and the community,” said guard Tarence Wheeler, a fifth-year senior.

Coach George Raveling of USC predicted that within three years, Arizona State’s program would be on a par with Arizona’s and that “an unbelievably intense rivalry” would develop between the teams.

“They’ll split the state down the middle,” Raveling said.

Frieder only smiles.

“I would never have left Michigan if I didn’t think this was a sleeping giant,” he said. “Everything you need to have a quality program is here, except in-state talent. You’ve got great facilities, you’ve got great weather, you’ve got a great area, you’ve got a super campus.

“You don’t have the talent in the state that we had in Michigan, or that UCLA has in L.A., but the fact that Lute (Olson) did it at Arizona gave me the feeling that I could do it here.”

Frieder brought in talent from around the country last year. A walk-on, Jim Nelson, is the only player on the team from Arizona.

Frieder’s first recruiting class was ranked among the nation’s best, and four of the newcomers are among the Sun Devils’ top seven players this season. Five of Arizona State’s top six scorers--including Wheeler, who missed 1 1/2 seasons because of a knee injury--weren’t with the team last season.

Still, the Sun Devils have found a successful chemistry.

“Any time you have that many new players, you have a lot of inconsistencies, and usually with young players, the defense is not good,” Frieder said. “But we’ve been playing great defense.”

Arizona State leads the Pac-10 in steals and turnover margin.

“They’re the most improved team in the league,” Raveling said. “They’re the most improved team from a defensive standpoint, from a depth standpoint, from a scoring standpoint.

“They’re far more athletic. They’re probably playing more aggressive man-to-man defense than any team in our league.”

Offensively, Arizona State has abandoned the deliberate, walk-up-the-floor style that Frieder believed was the Sun Devils’ only hope last season, when they lacked the athletic ability to compete with many teams.

Holdover Isaac Austin, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound senior center, leads the Sun Devils with averages of 16.8 points and 9.3 rebounds a game. His play has been more inspired than it was last season, when he was benched at the start of one game because Frieder didn’t like the way he shot his pregame layups.

“He dominated inside like no one has in the two years I’ve been here,” Washington Coach Lynn Nance said last week after the begoggled Austin scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds against the Huskies.

Wheeler, a starter in 35 of 40 games before he was injured two years ago, is averaging 14.6 points in an impressive return.

Among the newcomers:

--Lynn Collins, considered by many to be the nation’s No. 1 junior college guard prospect last season, has become a steadying influence at the point, averaging 11 points and 5.8 assists.

“He sets the stage defensively and he sets the stage offensively,” Frieder said of the junior from Odessa (Tex.) JC, the same school that produced All-American Larry Johnson of Nevada Las Vegas.

--Jamal Faulkner, a 6-7 freshman forward from Middle Village, N.Y., is averaging 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds and was the most valuable player in ASU’s holiday tournament after scoring 38 points in two games.

Faulkner originally signed to attend Pittsburgh, failed to qualify academically and came to Arizona State after spending a year at a prep school.

--Freshmen Stevin Smith, a guard from Dallas, and Dwayne Fontana, a swingman from San Francisco, have both started, but are used mostly as reserves. Smith, whom Frieder has compared to former Michigan All-American Rumeal Robinson, is averaging 9.9 points, Fontana 7.6 on 56.3% shooting.

Another holdover from last season, sophomore Brian Camper from Lakewood, has started eight games and is Arizona State’s best defender.

Frieder is encouraged, but not yet convinced.

After playing UCLA, USC and Arizona, the Sun Devils will travel to the Bay Area for games against Stanford and California.

“We’re into the strength of our schedule now,” said Frieder, clearly eager to see how his young team will respond. “It’s going to be interesting to see where we are and how we fare after it’s all over.”

The Pac-10 is watching.