Next Generation: One More Goal to Go for Bloomington South's Anthony Leal

Anthony Leal understands the pressure of being kid who stays home to play college basketball. The Bloomington South star can't wait to get to Indiana, but there is unfinished business first.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Anthony Leal was born and raised in Bloomington, and had a basketball in his hands at a very young age. The buddies he grew up with in the shadows of Assembly Hall are still some of his best friends today.

The 6-foot-5 Leal, who signed with Indiana in November and is part of IU's three-man (for now) Class of 2020, has checked off a lot of boxes already in his young basketball career. 

The big one — because it's right now — has yet to be checked. Leal and his pals at Bloomington South have dreamed of winning a state championship for years, and their last chance to do so begins Tuesday night in Columbus, Ind. 

Can they do it? Some say they're the favorites in Class 4A. The Bloomington South Panthers are 23-0 and ranking No. 1 in the state. Leal, who's now the school's all-time leading scorer, is their best player, but he's also got plenty of talent around him. And many of them have been playing together for 10 years already.

The perfect regular season behind them,  they are ready for the postseason journey that could take them to the promised land. Long-time dreams, on the verge of coming true. 

The past two years, South was eliminated by back-to-back Mr. Basketball's, Romeo Langford in 2018 and Trayce Jackson-Davis in 2019. Now they're hoping it's their turn.

"It means so much, especially with me and Noah (Jager), my point guard. We've talked about this forever,'' Leal said after a recent practice at the high school. "We've both got our scholarships (Leal to Indiana, Jager to Army) and we have this great chemistry together, Noah and I, and all the starters, really. We have fun together all the time, on and off the court. We're always smiling and laughing together.''

Leal's coach, J.R. Holmes, is the winningest coach in Indiana high school history — 833 wins in his 50 years of coaching in the state. In his 38 years at South, he's pretty much seen it all. He's been impressed with how calm Leal and his teammates have been through this run so far. 

"We talked about it from the beginning, that we really had six of our top eight players back and we knew we could be competitive with everyone,'' Holmes said. "Of our 23 games, we had 14 on the road and really all of our toughest games were on the road. We faced full houses, loud crowds, great atmospheres five or six times and fought down to the last-second in some of those.''

They've played some of the best teams in the state too, and Leal has won two of those games with dramatic last-second shots, "things I've practiced in my driveway or in this gym a million times,'' Leal said.

They don't seem phased by anything, Holmes said.

VIDEO: Anthony Leal talks about his legendary coach

"We had an undefeated team in 2009 and won a state championship and (Jordan Hulls) won Mr. Basketball averaging 15 points a game,'' Holmes said. "I told Anthony from the very beginning that he didn't need to do it all, and that if he had a good season and some big moments and a lot of wins, that he'd have a chance to win Mr. Basketball.

"He's done that, but that conversation has never come up. It's all about the next game with him, with all of them, and that's a great attitude to have. They're an easy group to work with. 

The journey begins Tuesday night against Columbus East (4-18) in the Columbus North gym at 7:30 p.m. ET. They beat East 67-53 on Jan. 17.

But this final journey has been in the planning stages for a long time. And for Leal, the moment, one that often lives for a lifetime, wouldn't have been possible without the presence of Leal's all-time favorite basketball player — his older sister, Lauren.

Lauren Leal and her "little brother"" Anthony Leal. The siblings are 17 months apart and both have a huge passion for basketball. Lauren plays at DePauw University and Anthony will play at Indiana next year

Inseparable siblings right from the beginning

Lauren Leal was born 17 months before Anthony, and she's been quite a basketball player herself. She plays at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., right now, and that's after more than a half-dozen surgeries on her knees.

But in the beginning, sister and brother played together all the time, first in the driveway and also at elementary school teams at St. Charles Catholic school in Bloomington.

"Lauren was good enough to play with the boys, and Anthony was very good,  too, so he could play up,'' their mother, Sherry Leal said. "They played on the same teams for several years, and they loved that, they really did. And there's no question that they are each other's biggest fans.'' 

Anthony agrees with that wholeheartedly. Lauren's passion for basketball runs deep, and he picked that up from her. She pushed him, and he responded. They both have a massive drive to be the best they can be.

"It's a blessing to have someone so supportive of my game. Our friendship is really special,'' Anthony said. "Her passion for the game is what helped me fall in love with it. A lot of times as kids, we played on the same team. Those are some of my all-time favorite basketball moments, her and I doing all that together.''

Once they got older, they started to shine on their own separate stages, but both of them have always been there for each other. Lauren has had a hard time staying healthy, but Anthony's always been there to help her through it. 

The Leal family from Bloomington, Sherry, Anthony, Martin and Lauren

"It means more than words can explain. She's the reason why I fell in love with the game and the reason why I try to push myself every day. She's why I love to game so much,'' Anthony said. "All the adversity she's gone through with two ACL's, two PCL's, two MCL's, 2 meniscus (surgeries), all that stuff and she's still battling and sacrificing her body. Everything she's gone through, she still loves the game.''

"Through her actions and leading by example, it has led me to be the player that I am today and pushing me to be the player I can be. There's no reason why I can't be the best I cam be with her right by my side''. 

"She's my best friend and my biggest fan. Everything she's done for me has pushed me to where I am today.''

The best among the best at Bloomington South

During the final week of Bloomington South's season, Leal became the school's all-time leading scorer, which is saying something considering how many great players have gone through there.

So far, the script has been perfect. And as an unbeaten team ranked No. 1 in the state with an IU recruit, all those road games have been played in packed gyms.

"This season has been everything I could have ever imagined so far. We're winning, obviously, but we've been having a lot of fun, too, on and off the court,'' Leal said.

The rock-star treatment takes some getting used to, Leal said.

"It's hard to put into words, because growing up I never thought I'd be the one to be out there signing autographs,'' he said. "It's a blessing, but it's also a real humbling experience for me. I remember getting autographs as a kid, too, and now it's me signing them. I've got no words, really, it's all surreal.''

Leal and Jager, already signed to Division I schools, have been able to just concentrate on their high school seasons, which means a lot. Leal and Jager, the school's all-time leader in assists, play off each other well

"Noah and I have been playing together since we were like 5 years old. He knows how to find me and I can find him, and we can really feed off each other.''

"It's that way with all those kids, really. They've been playing with each other forever,'' father Martin Leal said. "That was one of the nice things being at the Catholic school, because they started playing organized basketball a lot earlier. These kids have spent thousands of hours together playing basketball.''

There's no given in the one-and-done tournament, of course, and it's no different for South. Bloomington North (19-5) and Columbus North (18-5) could be threats down the road. 

"Our sectional is really hard, because there are a lot of good teams and we've played them all already,'' Holmes said. "What they've done to go 23-0 has been unbelievable, especially with all those road games. But come (Tuesday), everybody's back to 0-0 again. We'll have to play well every night.

Waiting a long time on that Indiana offer

Leal, a professed gym rat, averaged nearly 20 points a game as a junior and has had several great AAU summers with Indiana Elite, so he's been on the radar of many major-college coaches for years. Growing up in Indiana as a huge IU fan, playing there was always a dream, but other schools offered while Indiana watched and waited.

Leal, who's an excellent student, was leaning toward Stanford. Coach Archie Miller and his staff had seen Leal often, and spent time with the family on visits. So when their offer finally came, it was a huge relief for the entire family. 

It was a dream come true.

"My family and I, we were really in shock when Coach Miller and Coach Ostrom came and gave us the offer,'' Leal said. "I had the Stanford situation, which I really loved because it's one of the best schools in the country and education has always been very important to me, but we all really wanted that Indiana offer, obviously.''

Staying home to play college basketball is like living in a fishbowl, though. There's going to be a lot of scrutiny, but he understands that completely. He's ready to embrace the challenge.

"Jordy (Hulls) and I have talked about what it's like to stay home and play,'' said Leal of the former Bloomington South star who was a key piece of Indiana's successful teams from 2009 to 2013. "He loved it, of course, and told me I would too, but there is added pressure, no doubt about it. He also said it was most important for me to make the best decision for myself, but in the back of my mind, that was always Indiana. I always wanted it, but I was never 100 percent sure I was going to get that offer.''

Holmes and Leal talked about playing at Indiana often, before the offer came, and afterward. Holmes knows the struggles.

"It's really hard to go to college in your own town, because there's so much pressure to succeed,'' Holmes. "You go where you want to go, but the biggest thing is you have to understand the scrutiny you're going to be under. When you're the local kid, there's no place to hide.''

That scrutiny is a two-way street, too.

"Anthony's a perfect example of that from Coach Miller's perspective too. You can't be 90 percent sure on a hometown kid,'' Holmes said. "You have to be 100 percent. And Coach Miller didn't offer until he was 100 percent sure Anthony could help them. He's sure now, that's for sure.''

Current and future IU teammates pose for a picture at Indiana's Cook Hall. 

Best of friends already with Trey Galloway

Leal and Culver's Trey Galloway have been playing AAU basketball together forever, along with point guard Khristian Lander of Evansville, who committed to Indiana last week. He and Galloway are both 6-5 wings who can shoot well from the perimeter, and they are also quick and athletic. 

They will be fan favorites inside Assembly Hall

"Our playing styles are very similar, but the one thing that really runs through both of us is that we really want to win,'' Leal said. "The success that we've had together in AAU or in high school has a lot to do with the fact that we're both so driven to win. We both hate to lose.''

Neither one of them has lost a high school game yet this year. Galloway's Culver Academies team — which also opens sectional play Tuesday night — is 16-4 this year, but Galloway missed those four games with a wrist injury. He's 16-0 in the games he's played.

"When you break down our games, we have a lot of strengths that people may not see right off the bat,'' Leal said when talking about his friend. "We're both quick and athletic, and I think that surprises some people. And we've played together for so long that we really know each other's games well.

"He's one of my closest friends, even living three hours apart. We talk all the time, talk about life and things that are going on around us. We have so much in common that we can help each other out.''

Galloway has his state championship, winning the Class 3A title in 2018 and finishing second a year ago. There's nothing the duo would like more than to play each other in the Class 4A state championship game in four weeks. One of the four games Galloway missed earlier was the much-hyped showdown with Leal and Bloomington South, which the Panthers won 44-38 on Dec. 14.

"That would be the perfect way to end my high school career,'' Leal said. "Let's hope it happens. I'd love it for both of us.

Anthony Leal and Trey Galloway watch an Indiana game together at Assembly Hall