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Carolina Basketball 2011-12 TYLER ZELLER PREP Played for Coach Gene Miiller at Washington High School • Selected Indiana's Mr. Basketball in 2008 • Also won Gatorade Player of the Year honors • Averaged 33.1 points and 11.0 rebounds per game as a senior and shot 69 percent from the floor and 82 percent from the free throw line • Led Washington to 2005 and 2008 3-A state titles and four sectional crowns • Scored 43 points in the state finals in the win over Fort Wayne Harding • The 43 points are the most ever scored in any Indiana state title game • Earned Most Valuable Player honors in leading the Indiana high school all-stars to win over the Kentucky all-stars in Indianapolis with 22 points and seven rebounds • McDonald's All-America • Had 15 points, five boards and three blocks in 2008 Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville • Won the three-point contest at the Derby TarHeelBlue.com Focus: MORE THAN A MIND by Adam Lucas, TarHeelBlue.com Carolina's recruitment of Tyler Zeller was as simple as a quadratic equation. Or, more precisely, it actually included some quadratic equations. Zeller, who did a finance internship last summer and took corporate finance during summer school in 2011, was a highly sought-after high school prospect who fielded hundreds of recruiting phone calls. So he had to find a way to multitask. "When Coach (Joe) Holladay used to call me during recruiting, I would do my calculus homework while I was talking to him," Zeller says. "He never knew I was doing it, and I was paying attention to what he said to me. But I've always been good with numbers." He's not talking about numbers like points and rebounds, although as a junior he quietly tied for the team lead in scoring and finished second in rebounding on his way to second-team All-ACC honors. Instead, he's talking about…well, let's be honest. I'm not exactly sure what he is talking about. Zeller tries to explain the differences between the various sides of investment banking. It sounds something like this, which I have transcribed word-for-word in the hopes that future scientists will be able to interpret what he's saying: "In investment banking you value mortgages, bonds, stocks, loans, interest, things like that. You have to value the stocks, so there's always going to be an element that deals only with numbers. There's also an element of valuing the managers and their strategies and the business as a whole. You can do profiles and reduce the risk as much as possible to try and remove all systematic risk. That's what I like. I like the challenge of evaluating people and considering the value of stocks and bonds." Got all that? This is where you might not be surprised to learn that Zeller was the first Tar Heel since fellow Hoosier Eric Montross to earn first-team Academic All-America honors. Oh, and in more sportswriter-friendly news: Tyler Zeller is also very good at basketball. So good, in fact, that he pondered making a move to the NBA after his junior season, when he was an essential part of a Carolina team that advanced to the regional final. Zeller, the middle child of three basketball-playing brothers (his older brother played at Notre Dame and his younger brother is a freshman at Indiana), did consider professional basketball. Ultimately, however, he felt injuries during his Carolina career had prevented him from soaking up the maximum college experience. "Really, I've only played one year here," Zeller says. "My freshman year, I was part of that team but it was a very small role. They were very talented, and they just didn't need me as much. I came back for my sophomore year, and I got hurt. I was frustrated after those two years. We went to the NIT and I still hadn't really played in the NCAA Tournament. "Last year was the first year I truly was able to do that. To get there and see that excitement, now I know what it's like to play a part in a big-time team. We've got the opportunity to go a little further this year and hopefully win it all. I wanted to be a part of that." 17 Festival • Was MVP of the 2007 Bob Gibbons Memorial Day Tournament • Averaged 18.3 points and 9.5 rebounds as a junior in leading Washington to the sectional title • Three-time all-conference selection • Won the best post player award at the 2007 NBA Players Top 100 camp • Also played on the tennis team for three years. PERSONAL Posted a 3.97 GPA and was third in his senior class academically • His older brother played at Notre Dame • Younger brother is a freshman at Indiana • All three brothers were named Indiana's Mr. Basketball and McDonald's All- Americas • Born Tyler Paul Zeller on Jan. 17, 1990 in Visalia, Calif. • Son of Steve and Lorri Zeller • His uncle, Al Eberhard, played for four seasons with the NBA's Detroit Pistons • Business administration major. Jeffrey Camarati