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Chapel Hill,N.C. – Tyler Zeller couldn’t pass up a chance to play a meaningful role in North Carolina’s run at another national championship.
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The 7-foot freshman broke his wrist two games into the season, but instead sitting out and picking up another year of eligibility, 26 games into the Tar Heels’ season Zeller played in his third college contest Wednesday. He grabbed 8 minutes in North Carolina’s 89-80 victory over instate rival North Carolina State.
“It is one of those things where I am losing half a season, but I know at the same time, these are my teammates,” Zeller said. “I’ve got to help support them if I can help them in any way. … I feel like I’m obligated, just because they have been great to me the whole time I have been injured.
“As I come back … if there’s anything I can do to help them out, to help them get to their goal of winning a national championship, then I will help.”
r players were ruled out for the remainder of the season. The Tar Heels (24-2, 10-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) regained a measure of their once unrivaled depth with the earlier-than-expected return of Zeller.
Zeller started the season as the emergency replacement for then-injured star Tyler Hansbrough, but he broke his left wrist late in the second game of the year.
Team officials said at the time his season was likely over because the injury had a normal recovery period of 12-to-16 weeks. But he was back practicing a few weeks ago and, 13 weeks after he was injured, was back in a live game.
“I just felt like it was the best thing for me to help me prepare for next year, to get ready, because in these games, I can learn a lot,” Zeller said. “You can’t get that kind of experience if you don’t play.”
Coach Roy Williams now has to give Zeller a crash-course in the speed and intensity necessary to compete in the ACC.
“You’d like freshmen to be able to play some of those other opponents, other than just start out in the ACC,” Williams said after his team’s 10th straight win. “I felt good about getting him some time. I think in the long term, he’s going to help us, and that’ll really help him.”
Zeller’s return is a big deal for North Carolina, which in recent weeks has lost versatile defender Marcus Ginyard (medical redshirt) and pivotal reserve Will Graves (suspension) for the year.
For most of the 8 minutes Zeller played against the Wolfpack, he looked like, well, a freshman. Occasional flashes of brilliance were tempered by struggles on defense.
He checked in at the 8:28 mark of the first half to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd at the Dean E. Smith Center. He got his first touch roughly a minute later and knocked down a turnaround jumper that tied the game at 26.
“It was all kind of instinct on offense,” Zeller said. “Offense, I’m fine, because I’ve been able to shoot. There’s more on the defensive end, just reacting to people’s drives, people going around people, getting there to help, and stuff like that that I was struggling.”
He also was beaten to the rim once by N.C. State’s Ben McCauley, and picked up four fouls in his limited playing time.
“He’s a lot better than he was” against N.C. State, Hansbrough said. “It takes a while for a guy that’s been out a lot to get back in the flow.”
The Tar Heels’ don’t have that much time to bring Zeller up to speed. Only four regular-season games remain, and then North Carolina will have to win three games in three days to claim a third straight ACC tournament title. Then comes a probable high seed in the NCAA tournament, where quality depth is a near-necessity for serious contenders.
“I feel like I can just help our depth by playing, because it does get difficult,” Zeller said. “I feel like I can help and just give the other guys a little more couple-minute breaks so they can come back in and play full-force.”
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Posted: 2/20/09 12:15AM ET
