Zeller continues personal win streak at Conseco Fieldhouse

He has cut down nets and set records in Conseco Fieldhouse before, yet after a performance two points shy of his career-high, freshman forward Cody Zeller wasn’t satisfied.

In each of the last two seasons, Zeller has led his Washington (Ind.) High School team to 3A State Championships played at Conseco Fieldhouse while combining for 40 points and 44 rebounds in the two games.

When putting it into context with those championship level performances, Zeller put his 21 points and eight rebound effort on Saturday against Notre Dame at the bottom of the list.

“I was just telling (my teammates) I think this was the worst game I ever played here,” Zeller said jokingly.

The establishment of Zeller in the post was anything but a laughing matter, because from an offensive standpoint, IU had its least productive game of the season.

“You throw it in (to the post) and he can score, he can pass, we just have to cut off him and find open spots,” junior guard Jordan Hulls said. “He’s unselfish so he’ll find the open man. It’s very crucial we do that every game.”

Zeller paced the Hoosiers throughout much of the first half scoring 14 of the team’s 26 points and hitting six of IU’s 11 field goals.

“I don’t think we did a very good job defending him early. We got caught behind him deep,” Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said. “I thought he got a lot of stuff on the offensive boards to get himself started.”

The Hoosiers shot just 34 percent in the first half but Zeller’s four offensive rebounds all led to buckets for the freshman.

Facing their second largest deficit of the season in the first half, down 15-6, Zeller scored the next six points to ignite a 31-10 run.

“He’s really a talented kid,” Brey said. “He’s got great footwork and can spin off you and certainly we could not defend him tonight.”

The Hoosiers frontcourt welcomed the return of junior forward Derek Elston to the lineup on Saturday, which helped alleviate the foul trouble that Zeller battled for much of the evening.

His 27 minutes were the fewest he’s played since Nov. 21 but he helped cause Notre Dame forward Jack Cooley to foul out.

Without Cooley in the lineup, the Irish were forced to play some zone defense along with Notre Dame guard Scott Martin having to guard Zeller despite giving up three inches.

IU will play two more non-conference games before opening up Big Ten play with three straight games against ranked foes.

“We are asking a lot out of him as a freshman, there’s no doubt about it,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “He gets big assignments defensively because he knows he’s going to have a lot of big assignments coming up over the next few weeks.”

Crean said he considers Zeller one of the best big men in the nation at running the floor but his entire game is ever-expanding.

“I don’t think you ever have a player like Cody Zeller that you label or that you look at him and say, ‘Well he’s just good in this situation or that situation,’ he’s much better than that, with much more potential for that,” Crean said.

The 11-point win over the Fighting Irish comes three years after Notre Dame handed Crean his worst loss at IU, a 38-point drubbing in the 2008 Maui Invitational.

Cody’s older brother Luke played for Notre Dame that day and even though the youngest brother wasn’t donning the cream and crimson back then, he still wanted some revenge Saturday.

“We talked about (the 88-50 loss) a little this week but it was a bad memory for the IU team so we wanted a little bit of payback,” Zeller said.