Leandro García Morales (born June 27, 1980) is a Uruguayan-Italian former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
player and current head coach. At a height tall, he played at the
shooting guard
The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...
position. He was also a member of the senior
Uruguayan national basketball team
The Uruguay national basketball team (Spanish: ''Selección de baloncesto de Uruguay'') represents Uruguay in men's international basketball competitions and it is governed by Federación Uruguaya de basketball.
The team has made seven appeara ...
. He currently coaches for
Astros de Jalisco
Astros de Jalisco (English: ''Jalisco Astros'') is a professional Mexican basketball team, based in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The Astros are part the CIBACOPA and the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional, the top professional basketball league in ...
.
College career
García Morales moved from
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
to
Hialeah
Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in Miami-Dade County in the Miami met ...
,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, to attend high school there. He was joined in his senior season by fellow
Uruguayan national team member,
Martin Osimani, at
Champagnat Catholic High School. He first attended
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...
school
Lynn University
Lynn University is a private university in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. Founded in 1962, the university awards Associate degree, associate, Bachelor's degree, baccalaureate, Master's degree, master's, and Doctorate, doctoral Academic degr ...
.
In his only season with the school, he earned NCAA Division II All-American Honorable Mention honors, and was named to the All-Freshman Team.
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Eggie Athletics
García Morales then transferred to
Miami-Dade Community College. In one season there, he finished in the top ten in the nation in scoring, assists, and steals, while averaging 22.9 points, 9 assists, and 3.6 steals per game. He earned All-Region honors.
After one season of playing
JUCO ball, García Morales again committed to play
college basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
, this time at
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
, after originally also considering the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...
,
Xavier University
Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...
, and
Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...
, among others.
He played two seasons with the
Aggies, averaging 6.5 points and 1.9 assists per game in his senior season.
Professional career
After graduating from college, García Morales played for teams in Italy, Argentina, Venezuela, Iran, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Along with
Martin Osimani, he helped lead
Club Biguá to the 2008 Uruguayan League championship, averaging 25.9 points per game for the team.
With
Cocodrilos de Caracas
Cocodrilos de Caracas () is a Venezuelan professional basketball club based in Caracas. Established in 1990, the club competes in the Superliga Profesional de Baloncesto (SPB), and has won the national championship six times. The Cocodrilos' home ...
, he won the
Venezuelan League championship in 2008 and 2010. With
Halcones UV Xalapa
Halcones de Xalapa (in English: Xalapa Falcons) is a basketball club based in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico that plays in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP). Their home games are played at Gimnasio Universitario de la Unidad Deportiva. H ...
, he also won the
Mexican League
The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country.
The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...
championship in 2010.
National team career
Garcia Morales was also a member of the senior
Uruguayan national basketball team
The Uruguay national basketball team (Spanish: ''Selección de baloncesto de Uruguay'') represents Uruguay in men's international basketball competitions and it is governed by Federación Uruguaya de basketball.
The team has made seven appeara ...
. Some of the tournaments he played at include the
2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
,
2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
, and
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
editions of the
FIBA AmeriCup
The FIBA AmeriCup (previously known as the FIBA Americas Championship) is the Americas Basketball Championship that takes place every four years between national teams of the Western Hemisphere continents.
Since FIBA organized the entire Wester ...
.
References
External links
FIBA ProfileLatinBasket.com ProfileItalian League Profile