The Sun Devils are having a hard time forgetting about the Bill Frieder era.(Allsport)

ASU's first step was luring coach Rob Evans away from Mississippi after Bill Frieder resigned under pressure in September 1997 and Don Newman had an unceremonious interim stint.

As one prominent ASU official noted last week, news about the hoops program hasn't been on the front page of the Arizona Republic for four years.

"That's good," he said.

The bad news is the Devils have done little to warrant front-page attention on the sports page, either.

Regaining a strong foundation of fans has proven to be as challenging as the integrity restoration project, as Wells Fargo Arena was barely half full for a game against Stanford -- then the nation's second-ranked team -- last Thursday night.

Fans might have known what would unfold. The Cardinal sprinted away with a sound victory over ASU. Afterward, one fan called a postgame radio show and vowed never to return to the arena.

The lack of attention has not surprised Evans, who has said programs lose fans in bunches but gain them back slowly.

ASU athletic director Gene Smith took keen interest in Thursday's game and Saturday night's against California, when the Devils were again belted in the first 20 minutes and had no answers in the final 20.

The defeat to the Cardinal might have been expected, but the 87-62 loss to the Golden Bears had an extra sting to it, since Smith hired one Ben Braun from Siena Heights College when Smith was the AD at Eastern Michigan. Braun is now 84-54 in his fifth season at Cal.

Mostly, Smith did not look happy as he watched his first Pac-10 home games.

"It's painful. I hate losing. I sit here and get upset that we lost," Smith said. "But, at the same time, I know there's hope, that -- eventually -- we'll win this thing.

"When you have a person like (Evans), where you know everything about him is (about) integrity, you know you can put the resources around him. He's a good coach, a good teacher and he'll recruit great players. And he'll develop a winning program."

ASU was an across-the-board loser when Frieder finally walked away, the last straw being theft charges against two of his players. The biggest blow was delivered when Stevin "Hedake" Smith and Isaac Burton were implicated for shaving points in 1993-94.

Convicted as the ring leader of the scheme, Smith was sentenced to a year in jail but only served a portion of that stretch and is currently playing in Europe. Burton never did time and is playing for a minor-league team in Las Vegas.

In addition, 13 other Sun Devils had been linked to rape, assault and credit-card theft during Frieder's tenure.

Evans understood the full ramifications of those events only when he began recruiting as ASU's coach three years ago. In the homes of solid prospects in Illinois, Kentucky and South Carolina, the first question aimed at Evans was almost always the same.

Why would I want to go to that program?

"Certainly, it was pretty devastating, to be very honest with you," said Evans, 54. "We've had to let them know it's a new day, a new time and a new sheriff. I think, as time has gone on, people see that we're trying to do the thing the proper way and we'll get the proper kids in this program.

"The perception wasn't very good when we first got here, but I think it's rebounded from that."

Smith took over for Kevin White, who had moved on to Notre Dame, last summer. In addition to landing Braun at Eastern Michigan, Smith has worked with Tim Floyd and Larry Eustachy at Iowa State, and he's certain that Evans can achieve similar success.

In his first four seasons at Ole Miss, Evans went 44-65. Then the Rebels hit their stride, going 42-16 over two seasons with the program's first back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

In his third season at ASU, Evans is 41-34. The Devils (8-5, 0-2) last made consecutive appearances in the NCAAs in 1980 and '81.

To Smith, though, numbers are meaningless. He has no timetable in which he wants to see ASU as a major player in the Pac-10, and he pleads with alumni, students and fans to have similar patience with Evans.

In today's ultra-competitive environment, Smith should be applauded for having his priorities in line.

"It's a real balance we have to deal with in athletics," Smith said. "As leaders in administration, we have to be patient, and help him be patient ... not put him in a situation where we have to say, 'Look, we have to win fast and win at all costs.'

"That's one of the biggest issues we face in college athletics today -- the pressure of winning so fast, too fast and the wrong way. Fortunately, at Arizona State, now we're really focused on doing things the right way. We know (Evans) can win, and we'll do it the right way. It's just a matter of time."

All of Evans' practices are open to media and fans, a nothing-to-hide policy not practiced by many major-conference coaches, including Frieder. Then again, the former ASU coach didn't want many to know that, in fact, he missed many practices.

A renowned gambler who has been barred by Las Vegas casinos for counting cards, Frieder, to say the least, is an aloof character.

"We can't necessarily walk away from our history, our past," Smith said. "The reality is, we had those incidents. But when you bring in somebody like Rob, you sell where we are today and where we're going tomorrow, not where we were yesterday."

Sophomore guard Tanner Shell (broken bone, left hand) and sophomore forward Justin Allen (battling Hodgkin's Disease) are redshirting this season, while Kenny Crandall (in Eugene, Ore.) and Dewy DeWitt (in Trujillo, Peru) are on Mormon missions.

Nobody is left from the team Newman coached, and seven of Evans' scholarship players are in their second year in college, at most. That includes Donnell Knight, a 6-foot-7 sophomore swingman from Tempe who earned top-25 national acclaim at Corona del Sol High and committed to ASU three months after Evans got the job.

Evans hopes to attract a top-flight prospect from outside the state lines, much like he did when Texas native Ansu Sesay joined Ole Miss in 1994. Sesay helped steer the Rebels to the NCAAs in '97, and then Louisiana State tried hiring Evans.

But Evans considered his work undone in Oxford, Miss., so he stayed. Evans' brains and Sesay's brawn then powered the Rebs to their second consecutive NCAA berth.

"It's coming along about the way I wanted it to come along, which is brick-by-brick from the ground up, so it stands the test of time," Evans said of his endeavor at ASU. "I knew the process we'd have to use to try to get it where it should be. We still have a lot to get done."

Smith believes Evans culls the best out of a player to make him an upstanding person, much the way he watched Braun hone Grant Long, who is in his 13th season in the NBA, at Eastern Michigan.

"Rob really develops his players, not just as students or athletes, but as men," Smith said. "Ultimately, he teaches them lessons in life and how to make good decisions. With a leader like that, you create an environment where those kids won't get into the decision-making process (that brought down ASU). I think the integrity issue is so huge."

The feistiness and fortitude that drive Evans become apparent when he talks about the toughest transition he faced -- the officials -- in moving from Mississippi to Arizona State.

"You have to know who you can visit with and who you can't visit with, things like that," Evans said. "I'm a very competitive person. I'm animated. In the SEC, they knew me and knew I didn't mean anything when I'd get up and challenge a call. (In the Pac-10), they're starting to understand me a little bit more now.

"But I'm out here to win ball games. I'm not out here to make friends. I'm not going to embarrass anybody, but I'm certainly going to fight for my territory and make sure I get the same respect that everybody else gets in this league."

A double whammy

The national finalists from last season received last-second, stunning blows from downtown Sunday within minutes of each other.

Kirk Haston of Indiana hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give defending national champion Michigan State its first defeat of the season.

Travis Kraft was on the mark with his own late 3 to give South Carolina a win over national runner-up Florida.

Triangle gets tough test

Kansas State has rebounded nicely after a 2-4 start, winning five of its past six games, including its Big 12 opener at Texas A&M on Saturday to snap a skid of 11 consecutive road losses.

The Wildcats appear to be getting the knack of first-year coach Jim Woolridge's triple-post offense just in time, but now it gets tough as they play at No. 23 Texas (11-2, 1-0) on Wednesday.

No G'town vs. BC

Can't wait for that super Big East game between No. 12 Georgetown (13-0) and No. 24 Boston College (11-0), eh? Don't hold your breath, because the Hoyas and Eagles won't play each other unless they meet in the league tournament in Madison Square Garden.

The addition of Virginia Tech this season made it a 14-team conference, switching it back to a divisional format that makes little sense. Teams play foes in their own division in a home-and-away series, then get four opponents from the other division on its docket.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese puts it all together, with help from the networks, before each season. East Division-dwelling Boston College skips Pittsburgh and Seton Hall, as well as Georgetown, on the league slate this season.

If BC and Georgetown somehow hook up in the Big East final in the Garden, count Seton Hall, Notre Dame, St. John's and Connecticut among some of the country's more underachieving teams.