Zeller, Davis get their shot

CHAPEL HILL -- Roy Williams wouldn't say Friday which of his freshman forwards would start in Tyler Hansbrough's place this afternoon against Penn.

In the end, it doesn't matter, because for both Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis, this is the start of something bigger.

No one knows how long Hansbrough will be out with the stress reaction in his right shin. Williams downgraded Hansbrough on Friday from "extremely doubtful" to extremely out, and North Carolina's medical staff is erring on the side of caution with the senior forward.

Given that Hansbrough has yet to take a jump shot, he could be out far beyond Tuesday's game against Kentucky. With Marcus Ginyard already out with a stress fracture of his own, that leaves a giant hole at forward. It's up to Zeller and Davis to fill it -- and make their case for more playing time down the road.

"That's something we had to explain to the freshmen," junior guard Wayne Ellington said. "When guys go down, you have to be ready to play."

Later in the season, with Hansbrough and Ginyard both presumably healthy, there's probably only going to be room in the rotation for one of the freshmen -- even if North Carolina regularly goes 10 deep. The battle for that time starts now.

The audition period is likely to last at least two games, because Williams made it clear that Hansbrough won't be rushed back, however tempting that may be. This is, to be sure, a smart move.

The rewards for Hansbrough's early return are minimal, the risks manifest. Stress reactions are notoriously tricky to treat and diagnose and stress fractures unfailingly slow to heal.

N.C. State's Brandon Costner tried to play through what turned out to be a stress reaction early in his freshman year with the Wolfpack, staying quiet about the pain for 10 days. By the end of November, after playing in three more games, he developed a stress fracture that kept him out for the rest of the season.

There's too much on the line for Carolina to mess with that kind of worst-case scenario. He was examined by doctors last week and again on Tuesday, then had another MRI exam Wednesday.

"We're trying to be very conservative," Williams said. "That's the bottom line. And also when you have something like this, there's no true formula to go by. ... My wife asked me last night, and I told her the same thing -- I do not know. She should start cheering for him when he runs out there and until then she should feel badly for him."

So far, Hansbrough's basketball work has been limited to free-throw shooting. He'll need time to get his legs back. Even when he's playing again his minutes may be limited.

For Zeller and Davis, this isn't just a great chance for them to play early in their college careers. It's a chance to establish a pecking order among the two that Williams admitted Friday had yet to be set.

Zeller, a 7-footer from Washington, Ind., is listed as the probable starter over Davis, a 6-10 power forward from Richmond, Va.

"The first 15 practices, I thought 'Big Z' was really doing some nice things and perhaps was ahead of Ed," Williams said. "Then the last five or six practices, Ed has really been good on the offensive boards and on the defensive end. I'm being honest. I'm not sure."

On a team with this many upperclassmen, opportunities like these don't often come along. As long as Hansbrough's leg remains sore, the door remains open for Zeller and Davis.