Tar Heel Fan

UPDATE #5: UNC officially announced that Tyler Zeller had suffered a broken wrist from his fall under the basket against Kentucky.  Zeller was admitted to UNC hospitals today and had successful surgery on his left wrist.  The injury is likely  to be season ending with the timeframe for recovery by his doctors is 12-16 weeks.  That being said if he recovers quickly he could be available by mid-February. Even if he takes the full 16 weeks he might be available by the ACC Tournament.  The question would be whether Roy wants to use Zeller and waste the year on what could end up being 11 games at most.  There is also an element of meshing him into the team at that point which may not work.  Still if he is available it does not hurt to have more depth at that point in the season.

As for Zeller, this really sucks.  He was playing well despite the quiet stat line last night.  He also would have benefited tremendously from playing alongside the other Tyler and I was quite looking forward to see those two on the court together.  As it is he will watch and learn but hopefully be ready to go next season if he ends up sitting the rest of this one out.

Original post and updates after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Zeller’s Wrist[UPDATEDx5]‘

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So sayeth Roy.

Nothing substantive beyond that.  Is it just further precaution?  Is the injury not healing? Did Roy not feel comfortable inserting him back into lineup with only one practice before the game?

I am think it is one and three but feel free to speculate.

UPDATE: ACC Now does their usual outstanding job of getting the goods.  It sounds like they are being conservative but also trying to get his conditioning in order before moving forward.  Based on that, it seems that they are trying to ramp him up to a full workload and see if the shin handles it or not.  So if I had to guess at this point I’d say he plays in Maui and they might even wait for the 2nd game since the first one is against Chaminade who they should beat despite what happened in 1981 to UVa.

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Hopefully just extreme caution on the part of UNC as well.

Continue reading ‘Roy: Hansbrough “Extremely Doubtful” For Opener’

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UPDATE #2: More information via ESPN which casts a brighter picture.

“He’ll be ok,” Hansbrough’s father, Gene, told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz. “His leg’s been bothering him for a couple of weeks. It’s a stress reaction and he needs to rest a bit. He just needs time to let it heal. There is no reason for him to limp through it.”

According to ESPN medical analysist Dr. Michael Kaplan, the MRI likely showed increased uptake in tibia (leg bone) suggesting a stress reaction. An overload or overuse type phenomenon occurs with inflammation and, ultimately, fatigue failure with stress fracture. This is a precursor condition to stress fracture. A period of rest is mandatory for tissues to quiet down or worsening injury will result.

The school issued a statement saying there is no timetable for his return and no further information on the injury was available. Coach Roy Williams said he would have no comment until Friday after he meets with Hansbrough and the medical staff.

“I expect he’ll be healthy and play [this season],” Gene Hansbrough said. “It’s still to early to tell. They don’t even have an exhibition for a week.”

Hansbrough played in all 108 games during his previous three seasons at North Carolina, and has two weeks to heal before the Nov. 15 season opener against Pennsylvania if he is to keep that streak intact.

“He understands the big picture,” Gene Hansbrough said. “He knows he has to get well and be 100 percent to help the team.”

Gene Hansbrough told Katz that Tyler’s shin started to bother him a couple of weeks ago. “But it got worse. It doesn’t hurt when he walks on it. I just hope he recovers soon,” Gene Hansbrough said.

Jay Bilas was at UNC’s practice in indicated it was more precautionary than anything else and Hansbrough should recover as quickly as a week or maybe longer.  Bilas said he did not think it would be a long term issue and even saw it as an opportunity for other players, such as Deon Thompson, to step up in practice and get better.

Original post and updates after the jump

Continue reading ‘Tar Heel Nation Holds Its Breath[UPDATED]‘

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