Channing Frye remembers his first Red-Blue experience as one filled with nerves.
One of five freshmen on the 2001-02 team, Frye knew that the scrimmage was a lot more than a scrimmage. Lute Olson said as much beforehand.
“He was like, ‘This is not a joke. This is a regular game. And this is going to determine other than Jason (Gardner), Ricky (Anderson) and Luke (Walton) who’s going to start,’” Frye said.
True to his word, Olson used the Red-Blue game to determine the starting lineup for the first part of the season.