CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina freshman forward Tyler Zeller, who has missed about 13 weeks with a fractured left wrist, will likely play against N.C. State on Wednesday night.
Coach Roy Williams said the 7-footer made the decision Monday to return, rather than take a redshirt season, “and I told him that was the decision we would go with unless he went home and slept on it and came back today and changed his mind.”
A team spokesman said later that Zeller arrived at the Smith Center today and indicated that he was comfortable with the previous day's decision.
Zeller scored 20 points in two games before his injury, and will add much-needed depth to a bench that could use it. Senior Marcus Ginyard is out for the season with a foot injury, and wing Will Graves is suspended.
Williams said he left the decision totally up to Zeller.
"Tyler's mom and dad and I were on a conference call from my office on Saturday," Williams said. "I told them it was clearly Tyler Zeller's decision; Mom and Dad told me they were very comfortable with me and Tyler Zeller making the decision.
"And I expressed to them again that I was not part of the decision; I told them that if it was 15 years ago I wouldn't even as a young man considered giving up a year for five regular-season games and whatever postseason games we might have. But he would really like to help this team; he would really like to play."
Robbi Pickeral has covered ACC sports for The News & Observer since 2003. She can be reached at 
Comments
Four Years He'd Never Have Seen
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 21:41 — captchuck18This kid has skills and major pop....he would never have been a full four years in Chapel Hill anyway.....plenty of time to get into playin shape before the tourneys start too....verrrrry good news!!!
Go Zel
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 21:15 — rabid1We've missed and needed him all season, while we were hoping for his full recovery.
Tyler will add a knockout punch for the remainder of the season. Just sorry he missed the bragging match against his brother at Notre Dame.
GO HEELS!
Carolina's bench needs help! LMAO!!!
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 19:05 — itzjoeymacAwwwwww... Poor UNC. Their bench is so weak. SHUT UP! What a joke. I think Zeller made the right choice but gimme a flippin' break on the 'bench problem' garbage. Yes, they'd be better with Ginyard but 'a problem'? HAHAHAHAHA!!! This is the same bull that made UNC look like saintS when they hornswaggled Matt Doherty after only 3 years and basically became a pro team, yet made NC State look like dirt for keeping Sendek 5 years too long. Quit crying. You want real problems? BE A STATE FAN! lol...
Please
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 23:31 — the_wb91joey mac, what r u talking about? UNC fans don't care about State's problems they are not even thinking about a championship... UNC is. I do agree that the bench problem isn't as bad as it is being made out to be... it could be an issue in the tourney. Please don't talk about Doherty he is the same guy who tried to be Bobby Knight with out the winning record... throwing things at players, acting bipolar as hell. Troy Murphy and players on the Notre Dame team had the exact same issue with him. It is funny how fans from other team purposely ignore that. I don't blame you... if I was you i would ignore it as well. Even though you fired Sendek who was successful just because he didn't beat UNC and Duke enough. I am sure that UNC and Duke are glad they are on your mind that much.
zeller
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 17:23 — george32zeller looked okay in a few non conference games so it is a real shame he is giving up a season of elegibility to play in mop up situations. he could use the 5th year to pursue graduate or professional studies or a second major unless he somehow thinks he is going to be an early exit for the nba.
Zeller
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 16:27 — festerwouldn't have stayed for a redshirt senior year anyway. This kis is NBA bound. The heels just got a lot taller.
Tyler's a team player
Tue, 02/17/2009 - 16:11 — macfamilycanesThis decision shows that he has team first in mind. Good for him.