THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080616
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 95 lines
The phone bills were getting dangerously high.
Three hundred dollars one month. Nearly four hundred the next.
Something had to give. Either Howard Frier was going to learn to like the University of Colorado, or his parents, Howard Sr. and Catherine, were going to go broke providing moral support at long distance rates.
``That phone bill was really eating us up,'' Catherine Frier said.
That was two years ago. Today, Frier is a junior guard on the Colorado basketball team, and Howard Sr. and Catherine still have phone service.
``It's all worked out for the best,'' Catherine Frier said.
Frier, from Suffolk's Nansemond River High, is a key member of the 15th-ranked Buffaloes. He's a defensive specialist nicknamed ``The Glove'' by one section of fans in Colorado's Coors Events Conference Center.
But for Frier the most significant part is not that he's playing 22 minutes per game for a top 25 team. It's that he's still at Colorado at all.
When Frier left Suffolk for Colorado in 1994, you could have rounded up enough cynics to start a pool on when he'd be returning. Look at all the other players from Suffolk who never made it, they added. The local recreation center was filled with them.
Frier was well aware of all of that. And the thought of what people would say if he returned home helped him get through some tough times at Colorado.
``I didn't want to be another statistic,'' Frier said. ``Just go somewhere and call it quits.''
Frier's parents were also a big help, although at first, Catherine Frier was against Howard attending Colorado.
``I really didn't want him to go that far,'' she said.
Once he got to Colorado, though, Catherine and her husband were determined that Howard would stay.
``We told him that it was time for him to grow up,'' she said. ``We also told him we were always there for him. All he had to do was call us.''
He did. Again and again. To say he was homesick. That his grades were poor. That the coach didn't like him, and stuck him on the end of the bench.
Slowly, though, things got better. His grades improved. He made some friends. And, perhaps most significantly, coach Joe Harrington, the man who had kept Frier on the bench, resigned suddenly in the middle of last season.
Harrington was replaced by assistant coach Ricardo Patton, who had recruited Frier. Frier's stock immediately began to rise, mainly because of the different philosophies of the two coaches.
The offensive-minded Harrington had looked at Frier and seen a player who would probably never be much of a scorer. The defensive-minded Patton saw a potential stopper, a player who could lock up the other team's best guard.
Once Frier accepted his new role, he flourished, Patton said.
``He thought it was his offense that was going to keep him on the floor,'' Patton said. ``It's his defense that's going to keep him out there.
``He's become our best perimeter defender.''
Frier has guarded the likes of Kansas' Jerrod Haase and Iowa State's Kenny Pratt. Awaiting him next month, when Colorado hosts Texas, is high-scoring guard Reggie Freeman.
Pratt scored five of Iowa State's first seven points against Colorado on Jan. 18. Frier came off the bench and held him to six points the rest of the game, just two in the second half. He also had four steals in a 70-45 win.
At the next home game, against Kansas, some fans brought a sign that dubbed Frier ``The Glove.''
``We have scorers on this team,'' Frier said. ``I just feel someone had to step up and be the defensive leader.''
At 6-foot-3, with long arms, good quickness and great leaping ability, Frier has the tools to be a good defender. He's got the tools to be a scorer, too, but Patton says he's not sure that will ever happen.
``To be frank, he's probably one of our worst perimeter shooters,'' Patton said. ``But he really does a good job of playing within himself. He's shooting (nearly) 60 percent because he takes good shots.''
Frier played AAU ball with Allen Iverson. But when it comes to shot selection, he's the anti-Iverson. No wild shots. Nothing forced.
In 17 games, he's attempted just 53 shots, and averages 4.8 points per game.
``What he can do is get in the lane and break down the defense,'' Patton said. ``Once he gets in the lane, he can explode to the basket.''
Frier started Colorado's first three games. Since then, he's come off the bench, a role he says he prefers.
The switch in roles came after Frier and star guard Chauncey Billups served a three-game suspension for improper use of a university long-distance calling card.
Frier says it was an innocent mistake. Not surprisingly, he was using the card to call home.
Frier's parents have a satellite dish, and watch as many of his games as possible. Others in Suffolk see him play only when he returns in the summer.
When Frier returns, he tries to leave something behind:
His example.
``Last summer, I did a little basketball camp,'' he said. ``I see a lot of potential in the kids there now. If they see someone going away from home and doing well, maybe it'll influence them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Denver Post photo
After nearly bankrupting his family in phone bills from Colorado to
say he was homesick, was having grade problems and that he stuck on
the bench, Howard Frier has turned into a force.