bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
CHAPEL HILL -- A week ago, North Carolina coach Roy Williams told fourth leading scorer Tyler Zeller he deserved more minutes.
But Friday, Coach Williams announced the sophomore is out indefinitely with a stress fracture on his third metatarsal in his right foot.
"The normal time period for these kinds of things is four to six weeks," said Williams, whose team hosts No. 20 Georgia Tech today (2 p.m., ESPN). "We don't know if it'll be that long, we don't know if it'll be longer, it just depends on how everybody reacts to the healing process."
Zeller is the fifth Tar Heel to miss a game because of an injury this season, but Williams said they felt good about catching it early.
Zeller's foot starting hurting after the win over Virginia Tech on Jan. 10, but X-rays and MRI's were negative. The forward missed Wednesday's loss at No. 24 Clemson as a precaution and sat on the bench with a boot on his foot. A bone scan Thursday, however, showed the stress fracture, and he's been receiving treatment ever since.
"He's frustrated, but he has a wonderful way of handling things," Williams said. "He knows he can't control it and some people look at it and say, 'Well he didn't start for you,' but this is a big time loss."
This is not the first time Zeller has been sidelined with an injury. Last season Zeller missed 13 weeks after breaking his left wrist in the final minutes in a win over Kentucky.
"He realizes he can't do anything about it and he's just got to do the best job he can," Williams said.
The loss of Zeller also leaves the No. 12 Tar Heels thinner inside, and Williams said the rotation would probably be similar to what they did at Clemson. Freshman Travis Wear will be the first big man off the bench, followed by brother David Wear, and junior Will Graves might see some time at the four spot.
"It's obviously difficult," said senior Marcus Ginyard, who has missed four games this season due to injuries.
"I guess we've had to deal with that a good bit this year already, playing a man down, playing two men down. So everybody else has just got to play that much better. We've just got to step up our level of play, not like we didn't need to do that already."
The Tar Heels are looking to bounce back against the Yellow Jackets today after suffering the worst loss in the Roy Williams era Wednesday -- an 83-64 loss at Clemson.
Ginyard said the bus ride home from Clemson was tough and the team is frustrated right now.
"The biggest thing that we just try to get across to this team is that that's one game," Ginyard said. "It's a game that means a lot but there's another game and we just have to get focused on the next game and the next opponent and just make sure we don't have the type of performance like we did on Wednesday night."
