Back on campus after being a part of one of the greatest NCAA tournament runs in college hoops history, the experience of winning a national championship hasn’t quite yet taken hold for former Indiana Mr. Basketball Tyler Zeller.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,”
Zeller said by phone Thursday. “It’s one of those things you enjoy in the moment, but as time goes on it gets more pronounced.”
The 89-72 championship game thrashing Zeller’s Tar Heels gave Michigan State at Detroit’s Ford Field on Monday was remarkable in many ways. It completed a six-game tourney streak in which North Carolina won each game by at least double digits, the first time that had happened in the men’s tourney in nearly a decade.
Even though the Tar Heels had dominated Michigan State in the same venue by 35 points in December, most pundits expected a much closer rematch, in part because the record crowd of 72,922 on hand for the title game was a very pro-Spartan gathering as Michigan State’s East Lansing campus is a mere 90 minutes from Detroit.
But the Tar Heels started quickly, racing out to a double digit lead in the early stages of the game, which helped to quiet Spartan Nation considerably. Though Michigan State made a couple of runs in the second half, the Spartans would never get the Carolina lead to single digits.
“It was a great atmosphere, especially with all those Michigan State fans. For us, it was just like another road game,”
said Zeller. “It was really loud for warmups, but once we got a lead, they quieted down. They became loud again three or four times during the game, but never for very long.”
Zeller played just one minute in the championship game, pulling down a rebound and hitting a free throw for one point. But his play down the stretch in the regular season and post season provided valuable depth off the bench for Carolina after his return in mid-February from wrist surgery after being injured in the Tar Heels’ second regular season game last November.
In all, Zeller played in just 15 games, averaging 7.8 minutes and 3.1 points per game.
Zeller’s certain to have an expanded role next year as graduation and defections to the NBA will hit the always talented Tar Heels hard. In particular, the loss of senior Tyler Hansbrough, the leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history, will leave a huge hole to fill in the Carolina lineup.
Asked the most important thing he has gleaned from watching one of the greatest players in college basketball history up close during the past season, Zeller went beyond X’s and 0’s.
“His work ethic every day — he goes as hard as possible all the time and tries to get better every day — is something you can’t really put a value on,”
Zeller said of Hansbrough.
The task of defending the second national championship in four years for North Carolina coach Roy Williams will fall to the returning Tar Heels, including Zeller and his fellow true freshman in forward Ed Davis and guard Larry Drew II, plus another top recruiting class of incoming freshman. North Carolina is already being projected as a top-10 team for 2009-10, making a return trip to the Final Four — this time at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — a real possibility.
“Coach Williams does a great job. It’s just one of those things, we’ll have to get some experience,”
said Zeller. “If we can get it all together, we can have a great year.”
Whatever his future holds, he will always be grateful for the experience of winning a national championship — what Zeller calls the “ultimate goal of college basketball.”
“It was a phenomenal experience, I’m just glad I was able to be a part of it.”
