"He could have gone to the NBA, easy," Frye said. "He just wants to make his mark on Arizona and on college basketball."

Frye, meanwhile, made his mark on Australia early this summer. Recently elected Hall of Famer Lute Olson took his Wildcats on a 23-day, 10-game Australia tour against Under-22 national and collective all-star teams in mid-May.

The Cats went 10-2, and Frye went off. He dominated the smaller and less physical Aussies and led Arizona in scoring (19.2 ppg.) and rebounding (11.9 rpg.).

"Channing had an outstanding tour," Olson said. "He shot the ball well from the field and the line."

Gardner didn't disappoint, either, scoring 18.6 points a game and connecting on 31-of-86 3-point attempts (36 percent). Luke Walton, who late last season developed into a triple-double threat nearly every time he stepped inside a gym, averaged 13.8 points, 9.8 boards and 6.6 assists a game.

The Wildcats are closer than ever because of the Australian tour, Frye said. Each player has a firm grip on all of his teammates' strengths and weaknesses on the court, he said, and Olson-planned group activities such as a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef and a white-water rafting excursion helped strengthen friendships.

"The white-water rafting helped us in a couple of ways," Frye said. "We all worked as one to get down the river, and then we played a game that night. So it really helped with our stamina."

Managing heavy travel, specifically quick turnarounds, is another area in which the trip Down Under should benefit the Wildcats. There were several occasions when Arizona played a game one night, went back to the hotel and slept, woke early to board a plane, flew three to four hours (sometimes longer) to another part of Australia and played another game that same night.

"This summer was nothing but traveling and playing," Frye said. "Now we have no excuses this year. We've been through it all [heavy travel] already -- four or five times."

In addition to the always-brutal Pac-10 road schedule, Arizona plays at LSU on Dec. 22 and at Kansas on Jan. 25.

Olson took his 1993 and '97 teams Down Under as well, and each time he felt the players toward the end of the bench benefited the most.

"I think the value of this will really come with the freshmen and the reserves gaining additional experience," Olson said. "Guys will know that they are going to be playing. They have the six-minute time period and they are in there for that time.

"Based on past experience, the guys who gain the most from the foreign trips are the reserves. They get a lot more confidence and I'm sure that will be true with our freshmen as well."

It's scary to think of the younger Arizona players improving. Last year, freshmen Will Bynum and Salim Stoudamire established themselves as trigger-happy and flammable options from the perimeter basically overnight. (The unranked Wildcats went out and upset No. 2 Maryland and No. 6 Florida in back-to-back nights in winning the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in early November.)

Frye improved all year, peaking in mid-season when he went for 22 points and 10 rebounds at Stanford one night and 16 and 10 five nights later against Washington.

Olson is not the only coach to employ the international experience. Many teams do this. Jim Calhoun, for example, took his Connecticut team through tours of London and Israel prior to the 1998-99 season. The Huskies went on to win the national title that year.

Don't be surprised if Arizona does the same thing. Just remember where to send your complaints.

Kansas forward Nick Collison shouldn't have any trouble stepping out of the long shadow cast by his former frontcourt cohort Drew Gooden.

While Gooden bolted for the NBA, Collison chose to return to Kansas -- but not before getting some professional help. The 6-10, 250-pound preseason All-America candidate was the only college player chosen for the USA Basketball Men's World Championship team.

Collison and former Duke star Jay Williams are the team's two alternates and both will work out with the team and play in two exhibitions: against China in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 22, and against Germany in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 25. Collison likely will skip the actual world championship games, scheduled for Aug. 28-Sept. 8 in Indianapolis, unless one of his teammates suffers an injury.

But Collison will test his fluid low-post game against the likes of Elton Brand, Jermanie O'Neal and Ben Wallace, and that experience could spell trouble for Big 12 big men.

Gooden stole the headlines last year -- rightfully so -- with his relentless offensive-glass work and silky baby-hooks, but Collison quietly emerged as the better big-game player (28 points in a 95-92 win at Missouri; 25 points, 15 boards in the Elite Eight win against Oregon and 21 points, 10 boards in the Final Four loss to Maryland).

If Collison makes the most of his time with the pros and learns a few new tricks, expect the native Iowan to finish the 2002-03 season with better averages than Gooden's strong numbers from last year (19.8 points, 11.4 boards).

Nineteen feet, nine inches ain't what it used to be, apparently.

The NCAA will experiment with bumping back the 3-point arc to international standards this year during exempt tournaments such as the Maui Invitational. During the Maui -- and other tournaments that don't count against the NCAA schedule limit -- the 3-point line will moved to 20 feet, six inches.

Kentucky and Indiana both are playing in the Maui and Tubby Smith and Mike Davis welcome the change.

"All my guys make the three way beyond the line anyway," Davis told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

There has been no ruling on the exempted tournament court case ongoing in Columbus, Ohio. A group of four companies that promote basketball tournaments has sued the NCAA over its rule (adopted in 2000) that forbids teams from playing in more than two exempt tournaments in a four-year period. The private companies claim the NCAA's rule violates federal anti-trust law. If the courts sides with the NCAA, it could mark the death of exempt tournaments such as the Black Coaches Association Classic or the Maui Invitational. ... Georgia coach Jim Harrick is still pining for 6-10 Baldwin High (Ga.) recruit Larry Turner. Turner was denied admission to UGA last fall and again this spring after evidence showed that Turner had someone else take his ACT tests for him. "No one ever came to me and said, 'Jim, I don't think you should recruit this kid,'" Harrick told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Others not scared away by Turner's reputation include Oklahoma, Alabama, Connecticut and Ohio State. ... Former North Carolina PG Adam Boone has announced he'll return to his home state and play for Minnesota in 2003-04 (he has to sit out a year after transferring). ... Bobby Knight is trying to add some size to his team for next season -- the old-fashioned way. Five new players for the 2002-03 season are trying to beef up for Knight. Center Robert Tomaszek is trying to go from 226 pounds to 260. Guard Josh Washington and forward John Ofoegbu are trying to gain 30 pounds each to get up to 200 pounds, and guard LucQuente White wants to go from 154 to 180. Guard Tanner Ogden hopes to get to 210 from his stringy 178 as well.

Mark Button covers college basketball for CNNSI.com.