Three minivans and 320,000 miles later, Steve and Lori Zeller are climbing into their SUV to make the four-hour drive to Dayton, Ohio for their son Cody’s first and second round games of the NCAA tournament.
But this four-hour drive is small change compared to the five hour commutes to Notre Dame University to watch their oldest, Luke, or the 11-hour treks to the University of North Carolina to see their middle son, Tyler, play.
After watching their sons in hundreds, if not thousands of games, Lorri and Steve have gotten their nerves under control — for the most part. Games in the tournament are different. “Other games are sometimes just a loss on your schedule, but this time you lose and you go home, so it is a little bit more nerve wracking.”
Lorri says like any good parents, they’re happy to support their kids.
“We didn’t spend a lot of time yelling or screaming at games or spending a lot of time criticizing the boys after games,” Steve says. “What we did was we supported them before the game. We prepared them for the game.”
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Sophomore forward Cody Zeller fights the defender for a better position under the basket. Will Sheehey throws the ball to Cody over the Temple player. He catches it. Thinking he has a clear shot, he leaps for the dunk. As the ball heads for the basket, Temple’s Anthony Lee swats the ball out of Cody’s two hands and into the backboard. The ball falls back into play, and Cody crashes to the floor on his back. IU is down 33-28 with 16 minutes left in the second half.
But Lorri says she stayed calm. “It is part of the game,” she says. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
Playing basketball is in Cody’s genes. Three generations of Zellers have heard the squeak of shoes on the court and swish of the net. Lorri’s mother and father both played high school basketball. Her father led his team to a Nebraska state championship in 1942. He wore number 40.
Now all three Zeller boys wear number 40 in honor of their grandpa, Marvin. Number 40 was already taken when Tyler, 23, got to UNC in 2008, so he wore 44 in honor of Lorri’s brother, Al. But once he began playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012, he reclaimed the number 40.
Lorri and Steve said they never expected to raise three basketball stars. “I noticed that they were special when they were born, I just didn’t know what talent they were going to have,” Steve says. That, and they just kept growing. They even outgrew 6-foot Lorri and 6-foot-4-inch Steve. By the time Luke, 26, was in sixth grade he was 6 feet 2 inches tall. Now he clocks in at 6 feet 10 inches tall. While Tyler and Cody are both 7 feet tall, Lorri says she thinks Cody might just be taller than Tyler. No one is tall enough to tell, though, she says, laughing.
Even though they lived in Iowa, Steve, 50, and Lorri, 51, remember watching the Bobby Knight era of Dane Fife, AJ Moye, and Jared Jeffries on TV. They say they thought IU was a talented, respectable team. “They work hard and do things the right way,” she says. “We never knew we would have a son grow up, or have a son first of all, and live in Indiana, grow up and play for that team. It is pretty ironic.”
Irony? Or maybe fate? Now as they sit behind the bench listening to IU Coach Tom Crean shout plays and the team strategies, Lorri says she feels like she has a part in the culture of Indiana basketball. However, once Cody started college, his parents handed him over to the coach and to the university. “We’re not really calling the shots, it’s the coaches,” she says.
As a high school senior, Cody’s choice came down to three schools: IU, Butler University, and UNC. He had visited IU countless times with his brothers during their own recruitment processes.
“When he started being recruited it was like it was finally his turn,” Lorri says. She says she could’ve pictured her son at any of his top three schools, but Cody just felt like the teammates and the school were a good fit for him. He was also excited to play for Coach Crean.
Cody had a press conference at 1 p.m. in November 2010 to announce which college he had chosen. He came home from school for lunch to make phone calls to all of the coaches and saved Crean for last. Lorri and Steve were in the sunroom eating, and Lorri remembers overhearing Cody’s conversation.
He called and said, “Coach, I just wanted to let you that I’ve been calling the schools to let them know where I am going to be going to college, and I’m just calling, it’s really hard to do, but I have two schools that I have to call to tell them my decision, and that’s what I am doing now.”
Silence.
Cody continued, “But I have already called those two schools, so I am calling you to tell you that I’m coming to IU.”
More silence.
“Coach, are you okay?”
“Oh my gosh, you just gave me a heart attack, Cody!”
“It was so funny, but he really led him to believe he was one of the two that didn’t make it. They have a great relationship,” Lorri says, laughing. “He was worried for a few seconds there.”
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Competition doesn’t live only on the hardwood for the Zeller family. The raggedy net, gray and drooping, barely hangs on for life in the driveway of the Zeller household.
“There were a lot of big battles in the driveway and our hoop shows it. It is very weathered,” Lorri says. She says she would usually watch from the kitchen window while her sons and husband played.
All of the Zellers hate to lose. From pizza-eating to rock-throwing to seeing who could get the best grades, the Zeller family has a habit of making everything a competition.
“Whoever loses thinks it’s a bad day,” Lorri says. But she isn’t immune to the competitive bug either. Steve and Lorri also hold little challenges between one another because they don’t like to lose either.
They recently competed to see who could lose weight first. They set a goal for how many pounds they wanted to lose, but regardless of who actually won, they laugh about it now.
“When the boys come home, all the pressure is off,” Steve says. “Inside the house and inside our home we do family things and act silly. It is a release, a pressure valve that you’re able to come home and just be yourself.”
The boys don’t let their talents define them. “They know they were put in the spotlight for a reason, and that reason wasn’t to show bad characteristics, but to show good characteristics,” Steve says. “I think they do a good job of that.”
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Lorri and Steve sit four rows from the floor behind the IU bench in the University of Dayton Arena. Lorri’s fingernails are painted to match her crimson shirt with the IU logo boldly printed on the front. She wears a charcoal blazer with a red scarf around her neck. She stands straight and raises her right eyebrow, clapping as IU ties the game 52-52 with 1:51 left. Steve stands next to her, his arms crossed over his chest wrinkling his red and white pullover in the front. He looks away, pursing his lips.
Jordan Hulls sets up low on the key to take the defender off of Cody when he runs by. Cody is now wide open. Yogi Ferrell bounce passes the ball to Cody in the left wing and the defense crashes on him expecting him to take the shot. It’s five on one.
He throws the ball to now wide-open Victor Oladipo at the top of the key. Oladipo takes the three-point shot with 14 seconds left on the clock. Whoosh. IU is now up by four, winning the nail-biter, 58-52, in the last minute.
“The Temple game was an exciting game to watch,” Lorri says. “But we realize that there isn’t anything that we can do as spectators to change the course of the game. So we just watch and try to enjoy it.”
“Everything you learn in sports,” Steve says. “You will be able to use in the rest of your life.”
Editor’s note: As of press time, IU had only played through the Temple game in the NCAA tournament.
