By R.L. Bynum
After four analysts rotated on the Tar Heel Sports Network men’s basketball broadcasts last season, there will be only two Tylers this season.
Tyler Zeller and Tyler Hansbrough will rotate working alongside Voice of the Tar Heels Jones Angell on this season’s broadcasts, just as Joey Jauch and Brynn Renner do for football broadcasts. Angell announced the plan in Tuesday’s edition of the “Carolina Insider” podcast.
Last season, Zeller and Hansbrough were in a rotation that included Pete Chilcutt and Marcus Ginyard. New analysts stepped in at the beginning of the season as Eric Montross continued his cancer fight, which he sadly lost last December.
Zeller will be on the call with Angell for Tuesday night’s 7 p.m. exhibition game at Memphis (ESPNU). The network broadcast will start at 6 p.m.
“You don’t replace Eric Montross, but you try to honor him and the first-class manner in which he represented Carolina, and the four of them did that all season. We can’t thank them enough,” Chuck Schroeder, Vice President and General Manager of Tar Heel Sports Properties, said.
“This season, we’ll go forward with Tyler Zeller and Tyler Hansbrough sharing these duties and joining Jones and our entire broadcast crew as we bring what promises to be another exciting season of Carolina Basketball to our fans listening all over the globe,” Schroeder said.
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Zeller was an All-America center at UNC from 2008 to 2012. The Tar Heels won a national championship in his freshman season in 2009, and he was the ACC Player of the Year and a consensus second-team All-America in 2012. The Dallas Mavericks’ first-round pick in 2012, he played eight seasons in the NBA.
Hansbrough, who didn’t join the analyst rotation until later in the season, was the national player of the year when he led UNC to the 2009 title. He was also the 2008 ACC Player of the Year, a three-time consensus All-America, Carolina’s all-time leading scorer and played seven NBA seasons.
The class for next season is listed.
| No./ Stars | Class | Player | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 star | Freshman | Maximo Adams | SF | 6–7 | 205 |
| 3 star | Freshman | Malloy Smith | CG | 6–5 | 190 |
| 5 star | Freshman | Sayon Keita | C | 7–0 | 215 |
| 4 star | Freshman | Kevin Thomas | W | 6–7 | 190 |
| Freshman | Alexandros Samodurov | C | 6–11 | 212 | |
| RS freshman | Cade Bennerman — W | C | 7–0 | 205 | |
| Sophomore | Neoklis Avdalas — X | G | 6–9 | 215 | |
| Sophomore | Isaiah Denis | G | 6–4 | 180 | |
| Sophomore | Matt Able — Y | G | 6–5 | 196 | |
| 1 | Senior | Terrence Brown — Z | G | 6–3 | 174 |
| 4 | Senior | Jaydon Young | G | 6–4 | 200 |
| 15 | Senior | Jarin Stevenson | 4 | 6–10 | 215 |
| Graduate | Angelo Brizzi — ZZ | 2 | 6–3 | 193 | |
| Walk-ons | |||||
| 25 | Junior | John Holbrook | 4 | 6–8 | 230 |
| 32 | Senior | Evan Smith | 2 | 6–1 | 195 |
W — Northwestern transfer. X — Virginia Tech transfer; Y — N.C. State transfer; Z — Utah transfer; ZZ — Buffalo transfer
Michael Malone’s coaching staff: Chuck Martin, Bryan Tibaldi, Sean May and Pat Sullivan; Deon Thompson will be a graduate assistant, and Brandon Robinson will reportedly have a support staff position.
Players who left for the transfer portal
| Player | Class next season | Pos. | Hgt | Wgt | Next school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luka Bogavac | Senior | W | 6–6 | 215 | Oklahoma State |
| James Brown | Senior | C | 6–10 | 240 | Howard |
| Derek Dixon | Sophomore | G | 6–5 | 200 | Arizona |
| Kyan Evans | Senior | G | 6–2 | 175 | Minnesota |
| Zayden High | Junior | C | 6–10 | 230 | South Florida |
| Jonathan Powell | Junior | G | 6–6 | 190 | Pittsburgh |
| Ivan Matlekovic | Junior | C | 7–0 | 255 |
Schedule so far
(Other than the ACC/SEC Challenge, games without links revealed from reporting by Alex Rosinski or Rocco Miller)
(13 of 14 games)
Oct. 18 — exhibition game vs. Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis
Nov. 2 — vs. Western Carolina
Nov. 6 — vs. Wofford
Nov. 10 — vs. Wyoming
Nov. 13 — vs. Georgia
Nov. 20 — vs. Marshall
Nov. 27 — vs. West Virginia at the Dick Vitale Invitational at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center
Dec. 1 — vs. Arkansas in ACC/SEC Challenge
Dec. 6 — vs. Butler
Dec. 12 — at Georgetown
Dec. 15 (tentative date) — vs. N.C. State in a non-conference game in Greensboro
Dec. 19 — vs. Kentucky in CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden, 2:30 p.m.
Dec. 21 — vs. The Citadel
Jan. 30 — vs. Illinois in Nashville, Tenn.
ACC games
Home and away: Duke, Louisville
Home only: California, Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, SMU, Stanford, Virginia
Away only: Boston College, Florida State, Notre Dame, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
