PITTSBURGH — "How many guys from Mars High School can say they've made a shot at Madison Square Garden?" Mars High School basketball coach Rob Carmody asked himself.

"Well, I know one. Tim Frye."

Another good question: How many guys from Mars go to the University of Pittsburgh and walk on a team that's made it to the NCAA championships six times in a row?

The answer again? Tim Frye.

Frye, a pre-business major at Pitt, said it was a "right place, right time" kind of thing that got him on the team.

He tore his ACL as a high school sophomore and decided not to try out for Pitt's team at first.

But one day, while playing intramural basketball against Marcus Bowman, then a guard on the Panther team, the 6-foot-4 Frye scored his team's first 14 points in a matter of minutes. While standing next to Frye during a foul shot, Bowman asked him why he hadn't tried out for Pitt.

Frye told him about his injury, but Bowman said he'd give Frye a call to play pick-up with the guys. Frye already knew starter Mike Cook from class.

"(Cook and Bowman) basically made me feel welcome and like I belonged in there," Frye said.

Frye joined the team for its summer league season and halfway through, program assistant Brandin Knight told Frye he had a spot on thePitt squad.

Frye lived at home the summer after his freshman year, but drove 25 miles to Pittsburgh every day — twice.

He went to work from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. He drove home again for a quick nap and dinner, then back to Pittsburgh to practice.

"I worked harder than I've ever worked in my life for anything," Frye said. "But obviously, it paid off."

Frye admits he has "more confidence than is necessary," in his basketball abilities, but showing his commitment that summer didn't hurt, either.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has seen Frye's abilities first-hand.

"Tim has worked hard and with continual hard-work, has earned a place on our team," Dixon said. "Tim's a good shooter with an exceptional work ethic and has contributed immensely to the success of our team this season."

The hard work wasn't anything new to Frye.

He was in the middle of a stellar career at Mars with over 500 points to his name when he tore his ACL.

"I know there were things he wanted to accomplish that the injury prevented him from doing," Carmody said.

"When he tore his ACL, I learned a lot about him. I learned how hard he could work and I learned how much basketball meant to him."

And Frye learned what a dedicated coach looked like.

"Whenever I tore my ACL and was doing rehab, (Carmody) got a membership to the gym with me," Frye said. "Every morning before he went to work, he'd meet me at the gym and we'd lift and work out.

"My parents are divorced, so I have a father and a stepfather, so basically he's like a third father to me."

Carmody said he and his family watch the Pitt games on TV.

"He's a big deal to (my kids)," Carmody said. "They're excited to see him play."

Carmody's family isn't the only one watching. Frye's mom and stepdad have held season tickets to Pitt basketball since Frye was 7 or 8, and even his grandparents come to see him play.

Frye's not a starter at Pitt and has played in only eight games this season, but he's too happy to be on the team and playing under great coaches to be disappointed.

"I came in expecting I wasn't going to play, which is fine. You have to earn that," he said. "But it's nice when I get in the game at the end and score."

Overall, he's played 13 minutes and has 11 points, including his 3-pointer at Madison Square Garden.

"I always tell the other guys on the team that I'm shooting 75 percent in the games," he joked. "Statistically, I'm better than them."

But Frye's favorite basketball memory lies not at Pitt, but back home.

"Our trouble my senior year was we had a ton of talent, but we didn't play as a team, myself included," Frye said. "And then our last game of my senior year, we played as a team and Knoch was the first or second team in our section and we blew them out."

Three seniors, Frye included, scored over 20 points in that game.

"It was a nice way to end all of our careers," Frye said.

Until recently, Frye held the scoring record of 1,162 points at Mars.

On Feb. 5, Mars senior Steve Cress scored his 1,186th point.

Frye was there to watch him break the record and wasn't too upset to see it taken from him.

"He did it in four years, I did it in like two and a half," he said with a laugh.

"I broke his dad's record so it's like he's taking it back for his family. I don't mind."

Carmody said it was a "neat thing for the program" to have two guys score over 1,000 points within four years — the two played together when Frye was a junior and Cress was a freshman.

The coach recalled Frye's sophomore year when the team was playing in the Christmas tournament.

"He had gotten fouled at the end of game," Carmody said, "and I remember in the huddle talking about what we were going to do and instead of saying 'if Tim makes these shots' I said 'after Tim makes these shots' and he went out there and buried both shots."

Carmody's confidence in Frye carried over to Frye's career at Pitt.

"When he talked to me about going to try out, I thought why not? What do you have to lose?" Carmody said. "I knew he could play. With the relationship I have with Tim, I'm just so thrilled for him."