« Men’s Basketball 2011-12

Tyler Zeller

School
North Carolina
Position
Forward
Major
Business Administration
PPG
16.5
RPG
9.3
APG
1.0

Classroom

Zeller maintains a 3.57 GPA in Business Administration. He was one of five players selected to CoSIDA’s 2011 Capitol One Academic All-America first team, becoming the first Tar Heel to earn first-team Academic All-America honors since 1994. He won the 2011 Skip Prosser Award as the ACC’s top scholar-athlete in men’s basketball and has earned Dean’s List honors in five of his first six semesters. He was also named to the ACC’s all-academic team in each of his first three seasons.

Character

Zeller was named captain of the 2010-11 Tar Heels as a junior, his first full season as a starter. In each of his first two seasons he missed a number of games due to injuries, but returned to the lineup late in both seasons. As a freshman, he broke his wrist in the second game and missed the next 23 contests. He could have red-shirted, but he wanted to be part of the team’s run for the national championship. He returned to the lineup and played in the final 13 games as UNC won the 2009 NCAA title. As a sophomore, he suffered a foot injury just prior to the start of ACC play that knocked him out of action for 10 games. He returned to the lineup and posted a career high point total in the ACC tournament.

Community

Zeller participates in Carolina’s annual basketball clinic for Special Olympians from across the state, shops for needy children at Christmas, is a counselor at the Eric Montross Father’s Day camp, autographs hundreds of basketballs whose proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House at UNC Hospital, the Inter-Faith Council men’s shelter and need-based scholarships, and speaks to elementary school children about the importance of education.

Competition

As a junior, Zeller tied for the team lead with 15.7 points per game and ranked second with 7.2 rebounds per game and 45 total blocks. He also ranked third in steals (27). Zeller enters his senior season as Carolina’s leading active scorer with 880 points in 79 games (11.1 ppg). He scored 103 points in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the second-highest scoring output by a Tar Heel in a four-game NCAA Tournament.