You could hear them from the hallways under Assembly Hall after the game.
“LEAL! LEAL!”
Kids and fans clad in cream and crimson calling for the hometown kid. The one who’d just dropped 13 points on Iowa with three 3-pointers and the game-sealing free throws in the closing seconds.
Minutes haven’t come easily for Anthony Leal, a former Indiana Mr. Basketball out of Bloomington South High School not far at all from Assembly Hall. But he’d be the last guy to tell you that.
“I think just really coming to work every day and understanding, like, me just putting this jersey on for practice, even, is more than a dream come true,” Leal said after the game.