Stirred Frye Lifts Arizona

It has been so long since Arizona wasn’t supposed to be here, you almost forget.

“We were supposed to maybe go to the NIT,” Jason Gardner said. “To make it to the tournament, to the Sweet 16 ... there’s no better feeling than this.”

This was supposed to be Jason and the Freshmen.

The team that played Duke for the NCAA title last season left en masse for the NBA. Arizona was an unranked team. Luke Walton was a fellow with a nice passing touch who couldn’t shoot.

Now Walton is one of the top 20 players in the nation and Arizona is moving on after a 68-60 second-round victory Saturday over the Wyoming team that upset Gonzaga in the first round at the NCAA West Regional at the Pit.

Arizona (24-9) will play the winner of today’s Oklahoma-Xavier game on Thursday at the NCAA West Regional in San Jose.

The freshman of honor this time was Channing Frye, the slender 6-foot-10 center Coach Lute Olson says could someday be one of the best big men to play at Arizona.

The knock is that he is soft--a “ham sandwich,” fellow freshman Salim Stoudamire nicknamed him.

But against Wyoming and its shot-blocking post men, Frye grew up.

He scored 18 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked five shots.

When Wyoming (22-9) tried to wedge its way back into a game Arizona had led by 10, Frye helped close the door.

Walton missed a three-point shot with a three-point lead with six minutes left and the anti-Lute crowd roaring, but Frye put it back for a five-point lead.

Later, with less than a minute left, the lead was four. Gardner missed a free throw, and it looked as if Wyoming’s opening had arrived.

But Frye, in the middle of the Cowboys’ battling rebounders, tipped the ball out to Rick Anderson.

“We discussed it when we went to the line,” Anderson said. “See if you can tip it my way, or Luke’s. That was a big-time tip. Without that, it would have been tough.”

Instead, Walton went to the line with 43.6 seconds left and sank both free throws for a six-point lead, and Gardner added two with 30 seconds left.

Walton was once again the player who made many of the biggest plays, making two leaning jump shots in the lane to stretch the lead to five and then to seven with 3:49 left.

“Every time we’d cut it to four, or to three, he’d make a basket,” Wyoming Coach Steve McClain said. “That’s what makes him stand out, and what should make him stand out.”

Walton led Arizona with 21 points and nine rebounds but had only two assists.

“Both times, I got into the lane and they stayed back and played the passes,” Walton said. “In the game on Thursday, I was still trying to pass, so the coaches told me if they’re not going to come up and attack me, then take the shot. I just happened to make them both.”

Gardner scored 14 points, driving to the basket to get fouled in a game when he was only one for seven from three-point range and Arizona made only four.

Frye stepped up to battle Wyoming’s Uche Nsonwu-Amadi and ferocious post player Josh Davis. Davis scored 17 points, as did forward Marcus Bailey, and Nsonwu-Amadi added 10.

“You know, Coach always tells me, ‘Stop being a ham sandwich in practice,’ and I really take that to heart,” Frye said. “I feel like for me to be productive on this team, I need to be aggressive on the boards, and I need to be a defensive presence. I felt like I had to do that for my team to win tonight.”

That’s what he did.

“Channing can be as good a big man as we’ve ever had through the time that I’ve been at Arizona,” Olson said. “The big thing with him is to stay focused on what needs to be done. Sometimes you can see he loses some of that aggression, and when he does that, he’s not half the player he is when he’s affecting the shooter. He had five blocked shots, but he affected a lot more.”

Frye is something of a whipping boy in practice, but it’s because Olson sees so much potential.

“Everybody was saying, ‘You’ve got to play a 6-10, 260 guy,’” said Frye, who weighs 222. “I just had to step up. I feel like when it counts, every freshman is going to step up.”