Then, Mike Anderson asked him to be one of the team captains.

"People look up to you, Leo," he would remember Anderson saying.

And suddenly he felt … different. He had never been asked to be a leader before. That’s not to say that everything went perfectly after that; it only works that way in the movies. Lyons still had his good moments and his bad ones. He still found himself on the bench listening to Anderson’s soliloquies about keeping his head in the game and playing hard.

...

Lyons may have had the most complete game of his career against Cornell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He scored, rebounded, defended, handled the ball. He left his teammates talking about how far the Tigers can go in the tournament if he keeps playing like that. He left Cornell coach Steve Donahue in awe.

"A senior like that, plays at a great pace, very skilled, yet tough," Donahue says. "When he misses his shot, he has the ability to chase it down. He does it against all competition. That’s what makes him really good."

And what did Lyons think of his game? "I’ve played like that before," he says. "But I’m just so much more mature now. That’s the difference."