Anthony Leal's IU dream had already come true. Then came Tuesday night and this was better
BLOOMINGTON – Sherry Leal is wiping her eyes 20 rows up at Assembly Hall because that’s her boy down there, her son Anthony, and he’s getting his chance and he’s drilling shots and then he keeps doing something more wondrous:
He’s smiling.
You should have seen this kid, the smile on his face during the Hoosiers’ 74-68 victory Tuesday night against Iowa. He kept smiling on the court, unwilling or more likely unable to hide his glee, because this was his dream, this game. He’d been waiting almost four years for this moment and he rose to it, hitting a trio of 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 13 points, smiling like a little kid after every one of them.
In the crowd, Sherry Leal was watching him smile and wiping her eyes and hugging on her husband, Martin, because it’s not just Anthony Leal who’s been waiting four years for a moment like this.
Mom and Dad have been waiting, too.
IU is the school where Leal always wanted to play, born and raised in Bloomington and the 2020 IndyStar Mr. Basketball winner out of Bloomington South, but this isn’t the career anyone expected him to have. He entered Tuesday night with 81 points, total, in 3½ seasons, with his playing time dwindling over time. He played in 11 games as a junior — scored two points, all season — and had played in just eight of the first 20 games this season with 14 points, total.
“Coming out of high school, everybody has expectations, you know,” Leal was saying after the game. “(I) tried to stick it out because of my love for this university and this school, understanding this is a dream come true — whether I’m playing one minute or 40 minutes.”
2020 Mr. Basketball finalists: Tony Perkins, Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal
Two of the finalists Leal beat out for Mr. Basketball were on the court Tuesday night, too.
IU senior Trey Galloway of Culver Academy played a game-high 38 minutes, with nine points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. He had turnover issues — five in all, including three errant passes in a 46-second span midway through the second half. That coincided with the end of Iowa’s rally from a 17-point deficit to a 56-53 lead with 7:56 left. That was mainly the doing of Iowa senior Tony Perkins of Lawrence North, who scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half, with two of his four rebounds, two of his three assists, both steals and all three blocks.
From 2020: Mr. Basketball finalists led by Leal, Perkins and Galloway
Perkins was the Iowa player who took over because Leal was shutting down its best player for the first 30 minutes, Payton Sandfort, who scored 22 points in that stretch. That’s about the time IU coach Mike Woodson put Leal on Sandfort, who scored just four points the rest of the way.
“I gave him the game ball after the game,” Woodson said of Leal. “I thought he was huge — 13 points, seven rebounds, defended his ass off.”
Way to step in, @anthonyl3al! pic.twitter.com/vtcC5f09HU
— Mike Woodson (@MikeWoodsonNBA) January 31, 2024
Perkins, a more modest recruit than Leal and Galloway, has become a great player at Iowa, the 52nd in program history to score 1,000 points. He's among Big Ten leaders in scoring (18.3 ppg, eighth), assists (4.4, seventh) and steals (2.1, sixth).
There were moments Tuesday night when all three Mr. Basketball finalists converged, like with 80 seconds left and Leal hounding Perkins toward the baseline. Perkins jumped in the air, anything to get away from Leal, but had nowhere to go with the ball, throwing a pass stolen by Galloway, who was fouled and hit a free throw for a 70-68 lead.
Next IU possession, Galloway claws an offensive rebound away from Iowa with 26 seconds left and finds Kel’el Ware for a dunk, his final two points on a 23-point, 10-rebound night.
Next IU possession, Leal grabs his career-high seventh rebound and is fouled. He sinks both free throws with 12.1 seconds left for the final margin. I’m in the media seating area about 20 rows up, nearly even with Sherry and Martin Leal, and I’m not watching Anthony shoot free throws.
I’m watching his mom wipe her eyes.
Anthony Leal is a Realtor
Anthony Leal is a licensed Realtor.
Go ahead and read that again. I’ll wait.
“I’ve sold about dozen homes so far,” Leal’s telling me in the hall outside the IU locker room, where the sound of kids shouting his name — “Leeeeeeeeal!” — still echoes.
He’s closing on another home in a week, and you wonder how the kid does it. Then again — no, you don’t. He graduated from the Kelley School of Business in 3½ years, which is ridiculous for anyone, much less a full-time college basketball player at a program like IU. He’s getting his Master’s now, something entrepreneurially, and selling homes and playing basketball and also getting plenty of work in the Name, Image and Likeness space.
Most athletes do nothing for their NIL money. Well, they sign a piece of paper giving the school’s unaffiliated “collective” the rights to their Name, Image and Likeness. But mainly the players just cash checks, which is fine. It’s fair.
Leal, though, this kid … he works for it. Two of his NIL connections played across the scoreboard during the game — and they’re the most Anthony Leal endeavors ever: an environmentally sound car-sharing outfit, and the Project 44 initiative created in the memory of former Butler center Andrew Smith. For Project 44, the scoreboard shows Leal standing outside, telling fans how to become a donor, then reappearing inside Assembly Hall in a crimson Project 44 shirt, tossing a jumper toward the basket.
The camera doesn’t follow the flight of the ball, but it’s not necessary. You can hear the swish.
Doyel from 2018: Project 44 saved a life with the help of Andrew Smith's former teammate!
We’d have heard it a lot more Tuesday night, but the place was just so damn loud. Every time Leal made a 3-pointer, and he tied his career high with three of them, the crowd exploded. If you’ve been here recently you know there is noise at Assembly Hall, and there is Anthony Leal noise. And they are not the same.
Leal is beloved, and it has zero to do with his Bloomington roots. It has to do with his character, his positivity, the way he used his NIL money last year to pay off older sister Lauren's college debt at DePauw.
“Top-five parent moment for sure,” Martin Leal is telling me after the first half, when his son scored six of his 13 points.
Top five? That’s my question to Martin Leal. Shouldn’t that be No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5? What else belongs on that list?
Martin goes quiet for minute. He’s thinking of specific memories before settling on the one thing that defines his son, that makes him so beloved at Assembly Hall.
“Just watch him over the last four years,” Martin said. “He’s been waiting for his opportunity, and if he gets it he’s always ready — and if he doesn’t, he’s supporting his teammates.”
Later, Woodson will add this: “Anthony is the ultimate teammate, man, in terms of just hanging in there with me. I’ve coached him, and he’s come to practice every day and he’s done what’s asked of him, and never complained. Not once. Been a true, true, true teammate – and guys like that, it’s easy to coach.”
After IU’s 13th victory in its 21st game is complete, after Leal finishes his first news conference of the season, he’s walking back toward the court where he will sign autographs for whoever’s waiting. And there are a lot of kids out there waiting, kids like Anthony Leal about 15 years ago — dreaming of a moment like this and having no idea that, when the moment comes, it’s not like the dream at all.
It’s better.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana senior Anthony Leal waited 4 years for this moment vs. Iowa
