CHAPEL HILL - Tar Heel men's basketball forward Tyler Zeller, UNC's leading scorer and the top field goal percentage shooter in the ACC in league games, has earned first-team Academic All-America honors, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced Tuesday. Zeller is one of five first-team Capitol One All-Americas, joining Butler's Matt Howard, Notre Dame's Tim Abromaitis, Northern Colorado's Devon Beitzel and Kansas's Tyrell Reed.
Zeller is the eighth Tar Heel to earn first-team Academic All-America honors and the first since Eric Montross in 1994.
Other Tar Heels to win first-team Academic All-America honors include Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham in 1965, Charles Scott in 1970, Steve Previs and Dennis Wuycik in 1972, Tommy LaGarde in 1976, Steve Hale in 1986 and Montross in 1994.
Carolina is second in ACC history with eight first-team Academic All-Americas.
Zeller hails from Washington, Ind., and majors in business administration. He has started every game this year, leading the 20-6 Tar Heels in scoring (14.5 points per game), field goal percentage (.534) and free throw pertcentage (.764). He is also second in rebounding at 7.3 per game and blocked shots with 30.
Zeller scored a career-high 27 points in Carolina's win over Kentucky in December. Over the last seven games he is averaging 16.6 points. He has won Carolina's defensive player of the game in each of the last four games and a team-best eight times this season.
"I am thrilled for Tyler because he puts as much effort toward his academics as he does basketball, and he's typically one of the first players on the court and last ones to leave," says head coach Roy Williams. "It really is a big deal to be an Academic All-America - it's a credit to truly what every student-athlete's first priority should be. We had severalrecipients at Kansas, including our current assistant Jerod Haase, and `Z' is our first here at Carolina. I couldn't be prouder or happier than I am for him."
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