We received word this afternoon from Fox Sports Arizona director of communications and marketing Brett Hansen that FSA will be highlighting former UA center Channing Frye in its Suns: Planet Orange Primetime show tonight.
We have included YouTube previews of the show, which is hosted by FSA announcer Todd Walsh, who was a student manager with Arizona during the early years of Lute Olson’s tenure.
The Suns play Atlanta and former UA guard Mike Bibby at 7 p.m. in Phoenix.
NOTE: Hansen was the UA media relations director for men’s basketball when Bibby and the Wildcats won the NCAA title in 1997
Two of Arizona’s Three Amigos — Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill — from a year ago are reunited in Houston, hometown of the other amigo: UA senior guard Nic Wise.
Hours before the NBA trade deadline Thursday, the Knicks shipped Hill, Kevin Martin and Jared Jeffries to the Rockets in exchange for Tracy McGrady as part of a three-team trade that included Sacramento.
The Kings are sending Sergio Rodriguez to the Knicks. Meanwhile, the Rockets are shipping Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Sacramento, which also receives the Knicks’ Larry Hughes.
There are many cases in which former Cats have played together in the NBA, most recently last year when Channing Frye and Jerryd Bayless were together in Portland. The reunion of Budinger and Hill is one of a few of its kind involving players who also played together at Arizona.
That list includes:
Steve Kerr and Jud Buechler with the Bulls from 1994-98.
Brian Williams, later known as Bison Dele was a teammate of Kerr of Buechler with the Bulls in 1996-97. Williams and Buechler were teammates with the Cats in 1989-90.
Sean Elliott and Kerr with the Spurs from 1998-2001.
Mike Bibby and Michael Dickerson with the Vancouver Grizzlies from 1999-2001.
Hill, the No. 8 selection in last year’s draft, becomes the third ex-Wildcat to be selected among the first 10 picks of his respective class by the Knicks only to be released or dealt in three seasons or less. Larry Demic was the ninth pick overall in the 1979 draft but his injury-riddled career ended in 1982 after only 206 games with the Knicks. Frye was traded by New York to Portland two years after the Knicks picked him eighth overall in 2005.
Demic, Hill and Frye were all power forward/centers at Arizona.
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Jason Terry: Jim Rome correspondent at Dallas’ All-Star festivities
By Javier Morales
One of the best recruiting pitches going for new UA coach Sean Miller these days are the 10 former Wildcats in the NBA. His message to recruits of the Classes of 2010, 2011 and even 2012: You can get there from here.
If, for example, the Sixers’ Andre Iguodala makes ESPN’s Top 10 plays of the day — which is the norm more than the exception — chances are Miller or his assistants tell a recruit, “Check out ESPN’s top 10 plays. Did you see what Iguodala did? You know he played at Arizona right?”
Iguodala, Phoenix free-agent acquisition Channing Frye, Houston rookie forward Chase Budinger and Dallas veteran Jason Terry have played well enough at the All-Star break to be shining examples for the Arizona program. While the season has seen some extraordinary individual performances — including Terry’s 36 points against Golden State on Monday — some of the ex-Wildcats are hoping for a reversal of fortunes.
"In a combined span of 50-plus years of Division I basketball coaching, we have not worked with a more trustworthy, honorable newspaperman than Javier Morales. ... He has a personality that fits in very well with the needs we had as coaches and in his dealings with our student-athletes."
-- Former UA head coach Lute Olson and assistant coach Jim Rosborough
