Sunday, December 26, 1999
Sophomore slump? Not for XU's Frey
He's shaken slow start to star for Muskies
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Kevin Frey celebrates after his basket clinched the win over UC.
(Saed Hindash photo)
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Xavier sophomore Kevin Frey and coach Skip Prosser have met — in Prosser's words - a “plethora” of times one-on-one. Prosser's message is always the same: Trust me.
With Frey's recent success, Prosser is hoping his words take on more meaning.
“It's better when he sees the results on the court,” the coach said. “Now what I say, I think, has more credence.”
After a slow start to his sophomore season, Frey has averaged 18.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in Xavier victories over Central Michigan, Cincinnati and St. Mary's College.
During that stretch, the 6-foot-8 forward has shot 65.5 percent from the field and 94.1 percent from the foul line.
Frey shoots over UC's Kenyon Martin.
(AP photo)
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“Kev's back,” sophomore Lloyd Price said. “He was down at first. I talked to him. The team captains talked to him and just told him, "We need you.' He's been stepping it up. He's playing harder, rebounding, going strong to the hole. He has confidence in his game all around.”
“A lot of that has been a product of his attention to detail in practice,” Prosser said. “He's listening better, he's trusting more and he's working harder. We don't win the three games without him. I'm just hoping that now his poor play will be the aberration as opposed to the norm.”
During the first weeks of preseason practice, Frey was perhaps the dominant player on the floor. He played with energy and enthusiasm. He felt strong physically. The coaches were pleased.
Then Frey lost focus. The younger players were getting more repetitions, and he could feel himself not working as hard.
“I don't know why,” Frey said. “It was probably a subcon scious thing because I wasn't as involved in practice as I wanted.”
“He's still a sophomore, and he's probably going to go through those periods of ups and downs in terms of concentration level,” Prosser said.
Freshman David West was named the starting center for the season opener, and Prosser opted to go with sophomore Aaron Turner at power forward. Frey, who started 30 of 36 games last season, was going to come off the bench.
Frey had never come off the bench in his life. He said all the right things, that he trusted Prosser, that he would try to provide a spark when he entered the game, but it wasn't that easy.
He struggled, shooting just 27.3 percent from the field over the first six games.
“I wasn't feeling good about myself as a player,” Frey said. “I just told myself: I know I'm better than this.”
Frey decided that he couldn't complain about not getting better if he didn't put in extra time. So he started staying after practice to work on his shot.
He exploded at Central Michigan, scoring a career-high 29 points. He was 11-of-15 from the field. Fans told him, “Good game, but you've got to do that against Cincinnati.”
Frey played a huge role in the upset of the Bearcats, scoring XU's last six points. He was the only Musketeer to make a field goal in the last 131/2 minutes and the only one to score in the final five minutes.
All this while recovering from a pulled lower back muscle suffered Dec. 13. Frey had been in the training room two or three times a day before the UC game.
With Turner on indefinite suspension for academic reasons, Frey becomes even more valuable, if not essential.
“Some guys have got to hit the tree in the middle of the road before they realize it,” Prosser said. “You tell them there's a tree there, but some guys don't believe it until they run into it.”
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