University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
January 15, 2010 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 15, 2010
By Adam Lucas
The big news from Friday's Roy Williams press conference was an injury update on Tyler Zeller. Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, it's not good news--Zeller has a stress fracture of the third metatarsal in his right foot. "The normal time period for that injury is four to six weeks," Williams said. "We feel like we found it early but that's a small bone...The bottom line is he's out indefinitely because I think that's what everyone with a stress fracture is." Zeller becomes the sixth member of the Tar Heel rotation in the past two years to miss multiple games due to injury.
Zeller already occupied one of those six spots, because he missed significant time last year with a broken wrist. Earlier this season, he said he felt like a freshman rather than a sophomore because it was his first extended game action. Now, just two months into his sophomore campaign, he's suffered another setback.
"He's frustrated," Williams said. "He has a wonderful way of handling things. Some people may look at it and say, `He doesn't even start.' But that's a big loss. He's our fourth leading scorer only playing 16 minutes a game. It was only a week ago I told him he deserved more minutes."
Zeller's absence will also create a rebounding void. Going into the Clemson game, he had grabbed 25 rebounds in his past four games, tied for the second-best total on the team. Freshman Travis Wear pulled down eight rebounds (four of them offensive) against the Tigers, and Williams indicated Wear's role in the rotation would increase. "We'll do it the way we did at Clemson, where Travis is our first big man sub and David (Wear) is our second."
In addition to Zeller, four other Tar Heels were listed as "coach's discretion" on Friday's practice plan, which means they're dealing with nagging injuries. The quartet included Ed Davis (hip), Leslie McDonald (ankle), Will Graves (ankle) and Marcus Ginyard (ankle).
"We've had to deal with injuries a good bit this year," Ginyard said. "Everyone else has to play that much better, not that we didn't need to do that already."
Jackets in town: Lost in all the injury news is the fact that Carolina faces an important home game Saturday at 2 p.m. against Georgia Tech. The Jackets rank third in the ACC in field goal percentage defense, third in rebounding, fourth in steals and fourth in rebounding margin.
Nine of Paul Hewitt's players are averaging double-digit minutes, and as usual he has assembled an athletic, versatile squad.
"They're very physical, athletic and strong," Williams said. "If you're talking about strength and athleticism, they're at the top of the list. It's a challenge for our guys. We still have to be able to score inside, which we didn't do at Clemson."
Briefly: In addition to Travis Wear, another freshman earned praise for his play at Clemson. "I thought (Dexter Strickland) and Travis competed harder and more effectively than anyone else," Williams said. "I love Dexter's aggressive nature. Now he's got to include his brain. You can't have two charging fouls on the fast break...He's never been a point guard, so we've really added to the list of things we're asking him to understand. With each and every game I hope he will get a little more."...The press conference included an appearance from Ginyard, who continued to appear to be carrying the weight of the entire season on his senior shoulders. Asked about his health, Ginyard took a long pause and then said, "The bottom line is I feel I should be playing better and being a better leader out there on the court."...
Good news on the Celebration of a Century front, as four members of the 1993 starting five have now committed to play in that night's alumni game. Derrick Phelps is the only missing piece....Will Graves won the first defensive player of the game award in his career Sunday night against Virginia Tech. He followed that up by winning the award again against Clemson.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the just-released book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
