Luka Garza

Luka Garza was born in Washington D.C. in December of 1998. He has one sister and is the son of Frank and Sejla Garza. Frank played basketball at the University of Idaho and Sejla played professionally in Europe. Garza's uncle, Teoman Alibegovic, is the all-time leading scorer for the national basketball team of Slovenia. Garza grew up in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. and was 6-foot-7 as a high school freshman at Maret School. As a senior at Maret in 2016-17, Garza earned D.C. Gatorade Player of the Year honors and graduated as the school's all-time leading scorer. The four-star recruit decided to play college ball at the University of Iowa. Garza started 26 of 33 games for Iowa as a freshman (2017-18) and scored 12.1 points per game. He had a similar season as a sophomore, but his stats took off as a junior. In his third season at Iowa, Garza generated 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. That production led to the big center being named a Naismith Player of the Year Trophy Finalist, Big Ten Men's Basketball Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All American. As a senior, Garza boosted his scoring to 24.1 points a game. After a win over Wisconsin, Iowa announced they were retiring Garza's number 55. The center ended his senior season as Iowa's all-time scoring leader, the Consensus National Player of the Year and a consensus unanimous first-team All-American. Garza was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 52nd overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.