Sanctions won’t sway Zeller’s choice

Tyler Zeller, Indiana’s top-ranked high school basketball player, said the recent announcement of IU men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations will not affect his decision on where to attend college.\nReached by phone Monday night by the Indiana Daily Student, Zeller said IU is still on his top four list of schools, despite new sanctions imposed on Sampson and his staff for impermissible phone calls. \n“You still have to look at the long run,” Zeller said. \nZeller said he was informed of the recruiting violations Sunday morning when he was finishing up his official visit to Notre Dame. Zeller did not take a call from Sampson but was later informed by his father of \nSampson’s recruiting violations.\nHe said the news surprised him.\nZeller said he had not yet talked to Sampson, but planned on calling him later Monday night.\n“From everything I’ve heard, it wasn’t Sampson who did it,” Zeller said, adding it was important to him to hear from Sampson exactly what happened.\nZeller, a five-star basketball recruit from Washington (Ind.) High School, is a 6-foot-11 center. He is ranked No. 22 in the class of 2008 by recruiting Web site Rivals.com and is on a short list of favorites to be named Indiana Mr. Basketball, the award given to the state’s top high school basketball player. Current IU basketball players Eric Gordon and A.J. Ratliff are former Indiana Mr. Basketball award winners.\nZeller has narrowed his list of schools to four – IU, North Carolina, Purdue and Notre Dame, where his brother Luke, another former Indiana Mr. Basketball winner, plays for the Fighting Irish.\nZeller said he will visit Purdue this weekend and will take a couple of weeks after that to make his final decision. \nRecruits can officially sign their national letters of intent on Nov. 14.