BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Tom Crean already has one major victory against North Carolina.

He landed Cody Zeller.

Now Roy Williams must figure out how to defend the recruit that got away to avoid losing again Tuesday night when No. 14 North Carolina meets No. 1 Indiana in the marquee matchup of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

“He’s the guy that makes everybody else change their defense and you have to be concerned about him,” Williams said. “He gave them a legitimate inside scorer that could foul out the other players. I just think he’s a great player, a great player.”

In Bloomington, Zeller means more than that.

As a freshman, he helped put the Hoosiers back on the national map.

This year, he’s considered the best big man in America, was a near-unanimous preseason All-America selection and is one of the favorites to be national player of the year.

His impact can be measured one way – in wins and losses. Without Zeller, Crean was 28-66 in three seasons. With him, the Hoosiers are 33-9 in a little more than two seasons.

On Tuesday night, he will be the center of attention again, though Crean has other concerns.

“They bring some things that we’ve not seen, and I’m not sure that we’ve ever seen here,” Crean said. “I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a fast break like theirs here at Assembly Hall, and James McAdoo is as good a rebounder on the offensive end as anyone we’ve seen this year or any other year.”

The game pits two of college basketball’s truest blood-blood programs against one another. The schools have combined for 10 national championships and 3,766 all-time wins – the most prominent being Indiana’s victory in the 1981 national championship game.

But some of the bigger battles have come off the court.

When the Tar Heels last visited Bloomington in 2004, the Hoosiers had to deal with another recruit that got away – Sean May, who was booed mercilessly in his home city.

That won’t happen this time, in large part because Indiana didn’t let Zeller get away to North Carolina.

Williams was hoping to steal a second Zeller from the Hoosier State, and it almost happened. Zeller’s older brother, Tyler, graduated from North Carolina last year and was a first-round pick in the NBA draft.

“It was real close,” Cody Zeller said Monday. “They were in my top three. I have a lot of respect for everything they do, the coaching staff is great and Tyler really enjoyed his time there. I just thought Indiana was the best place for me, and I have no regrets about that.”

But Williams knows that focusing solely on Zeller would be dangerous because the Hoosiers (6-0) are not a one-man team.

The Hoosiers are fourth nationally in scoring (88.7), lead the Big Ten in defensive rebounding, rebounding margin and scoring margin and are shooting 52.5 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from 3-point range.

If the Tar Heels (5-1) learned anything from their loss last week to another team from Indiana, two-time national runner-up Butler, it’s this: They must be ready to play 40 minutes.

“We tried to challenge them the last couple of days that we’ve got to play better than that,” Williams said of the Tar Heels’ trip to Maui where they finished third. “I haven’t noticed the extra energy or the bounce because I’ve worked the dickens out of them.”

The Hoosiers do know what to expect.

With both teams short-handed because of injuries, the difference could be Zeller.

“I’m not going to put five guys on Cody. He is an emphasis and he would have to be the main emphasis, but we’re not designing a defense for him,” Williams said. “I’m not going up there trying to stop Cody Zeller. I’m trying to go up there to beat Indiana.”