Forget Him Not

This just in: Channing Frye gets snubbed again?

Arizona’s senior center recently completed one of the finest three-game sets you’re ever going to overlook.

In the Wildcats’ run to the Pacific 10 Conference tournament title game, the 6-foot-11 post player made 23 of his 30 shots and had 17 rebounds.

In the tourney opener against California, Frye made 10 of 11 shots, scoring 22 points in 25 minutes.

Yet, on Sunday, they handed the hardware to someone else.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson didn’t fire off another nasty letter to Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen probably because the tournament’s outstanding-player award went to Frye’s teammate, Salim Stoudamire, who scored a measly 37 points in a losing effort against Washington.

Welcome to Channing Frye’s life.

For a guy taller than some treetops, Frye’s publicity machine toils among the shrubs.

What’s left of his Arizona career can be measured in minutes. It will last as long as Arizona lasts in the NCAA tournament. The end could come Thursday night in Boise when the third-seeded Wildcats play 14th-seeded Utah State in an opening-round game or, in a perfect world, extend six more games and conclude with a net-cutting ceremony in St. Louis.

However long it lasts, Frye plans on activating his intake valve.

“Even the little things, like walking through the tunnel,” he said. “I’m a lot more appreciative of the opportunities that I have here with the team. The situation I’m in, I’m going to try to go out and win every ballgame. Not like I didn’t do that in the past. I think there’s just more of an emphasis on it this year.”

Frye will be remembered as one of the most celebrated players in Arizona history -- if he is remembered at all.

Frye will leave Tucson among Arizona’s all-time leaders in scoring, rebounds, blocked shots and shooting percentage. He has already secured his place as the No. 2 shot blocker in Pac-10 history.

“He’s a good shooter and he shoots it well consistently,” Olson says. “That’s why our players have lots of confidence in him. That’s the reason we do a lot of screen and rolls.”

Yet, there are reasons Frye’s accomplishments have not always registered.

He is not in-your-face flamboyant, nor did he pull into town accompanied by toots and whistles. He was dubbed a “project” coming out of Phoenix’s St. Mary’s High. He was not even the centerpiece of Arizona’s heralded 2001 recruiting class, which included Stoudamire, Isaiah Fox, Dennis Latimore and Will Bynum.

Latimore has since transferred to Notre Dame and Bynum ended up in Georgia Tech’s backcourt.

And although Frye developed much faster than expected -- becoming a starter as a freshman and earning honorable mention all-conference honors as a sophomore -- he has been overshadowed by the spectacular play of more ballyhooed players, teammate Stoudamire for one.

Frye also developed as the Phoenix-area newspapers began spilling ink over the exploits of Arizona State’s Ike Diogu, an awe-inspiring power player of prodigious talents.

Arizona State failed to make the NCAA tournament this year, yet Diogu was named Pac-10 player of the year ... time to fire off an e-mail about that?

Stoudamire says Frye has never complained to him about Diogu’s getting more attention.

“I don’t think that’s bothered him at all,” Stoudamire said.

Then, he reconsidered the question.

“Well, maybe a little bit,” Stoudamire continued, “where it motivates him to play harder. But I don’t think he’s looking at it from a selfish standpoint.”

Olson got so fried over Frye, of course, he key-punched a scathing missive to Pac-10 offices after Channing had made 24 of 28 shots in two games against the Washington schools but lost out on player-of-the-week honors to Husky Tre Simmons.

In his e-mail, Olson wrote in part, “Would you like Channing to take the tickets at the door and also sell concessions? I may advise him to do so at the upcoming Pac-10 tournament.”

(For the record, Frye was not spotted selling peanuts at Staples Center.)

Olson continued, “If I seem incensed and furious, your senses are correct. To put it loud and clear (if I have not already done so), I felt it was totally disgusting not to have Channing Frye recognized.”

Frye said he was “shocked” at the tone of Olson’s letter to the Pac-10 and touched that his coach would take such a forceful stand.

Frye also said he would have rather “got that win at Washington than get that award.”

He also said he doesn’t need anyone fighting his causes.

“I don’t ask for anyone’s appreciation,” Frye said. “I just try to go out there and be a winner. I don’t care about any individual awards. It’s good, and it’s just probably a reflection of our system and our team, but I don’t ever ask anyone to appreciate me or think that I’m the best at anything.

“I just want people to say Channing was a winner when he was here and he was a successful person.”

Frye appears to be saving his best for now. He is averaging 15.8 points this season but has bumped that number to 18.6 points over his last five games.

Not that he expects anyone to have noticed.

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Blockheads

Arizona center Channing Frye is No. 2 on the Pac-10 career shot-blocking list. A look:

*--* Rk. No. Player, School Years 1. 278 Anthony Cook, Ariz. 1986-89 2. 241 Channing Frye, Ariz. 2000-2004 3. 207 Michael Stewart, Cal 1994-97 4. 195 Sam Clancy, USC 1999-2002 5. 191 Mario Bennett, ASU 1991-95 6. 188 Jelani McCoy, UCLA 1996-98 7. 186 Chris Welp, Wash. 1984-87 8. 186 Loren Woods, Ariz. 2000-01 9. 184 Dan Gadzuric, UCLA 1999-2002 10. 176 James Donaldson, WSU 1976-79

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