Zeller: Sanctions won’t affect college decision

Tyler Zeller, arguably the state’s top high school basketball prospect, said IU men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson’s recently announced recruiting violations will not affect his decision on where to attend college. \nReached by phone Monday night, 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 Sampson’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 ranked No. 22 in the class of 2008 by recruiting Web site Rivals.com. He 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, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Purdue. He will visit Purdue this weekend and said he will take a couple weeks after that to make his final decision.\n- For more coverage and reaction see Tuesday's Indiana Daily Student.