Tyrone W. Garland (born August 13, 1992), nicknamed South West Philly Floater, is an American former basketball player. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he joined the Mississauga Power midway in the 2014–15 season, a few months after completing his senior year at La Salle University. He had several impactful performances with Mississauga in his rookie season and was awarded several starts. Garland primarily plays the point guard position, but is known as an all-around guard.
Garland, whom Rivals.com and 247Sports.com rated a three-star recruit coming out of high school, started out his collegiate career with Virginia Tech after being recruited by a number of high major college basketball programs. However, after seeing very limited minutes from head coach Seth Greenberg during his first two seasons there, he transferred to La Salle and started competing for the Explorers in late 2012. As a junior with his new team, he famously made a game-winning shot dubbed the "Southwest Philly Floater" in the 2013 NCAA tournament.
Before playing college basketball, Garland starred for John Bartram High School in his hometown and was a first-team All-State selection and one of the top scorers in the history of the Philadelphia Public League (PPL). In his time, he scored the third-most points by any player in the Public League, only being exceeded by Maureece Rice and Wilt Chamberlain. Garland is currently the fourth-best scorer in PPL history.
Early life and high school
Garland was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by his mother, Audrey Tyler. He grew up on South Yewdall Street, near 54th Street and Greenway Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia's Kingsessing neighborhood. He attended middle school at Richard Allen Preparatory Charter School in the same area. His cousin Bernard Tyler, a former player at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, helped him learn a basketball move known as the floater. Tyler told Garland to "just get it over the big man and leave it in God's hands".
Initially, Garland was enrolled at Delaware Valley Charter School, which was located only half a mile from his future college, La Salle University. However, his cousin Donnel Feaster, an alumnus of John Bartram High School, recommended that Garland attend his alma mater. The team's head coach, James Brown, said, "I'm always telling my ex-players, 'If you see any good ones, send them my way'...Not that they listen. Don did, though. That's how I got Ty".
Garland ultimately enrolled at Bartram and played under Brown. A four-year letter winner, he was promoted to team captain in his senior season and garnered several Philadelphia Public League (PPL) accolades. In both his junior and senior years, the Philadelphia Daily News named Garland first-team All-City and the Associated Press named him a first-team All-State selection. He led Bartram in his last two seasons there, averaging 28.5 points and 25.1 points per game as a junior and senior respectively. The team went 73–35 in the years that Garland was with them, and he led them to a PPL championship appearance against Imhotep Institute Charter High School, where Bartram lost 48–56. He scored 32 points and 6 three-pointers, but his teammates were only 5-for-37 in their shot attempts.
In an earlier 2009 Class AAAA playoff contest vs Pocono Mountain East High School, Garland scored eight consecutive points in the final 44 seconds of regulation. He capped the streak by making a 30-foot shot with 3.3 seconds remaining, and his 40 total points helped Bartram win, 72–67. Garland scored a total of 2,198 points, making him the top scorer in school history and the third-leading scorer in Public League history. Maureece Rice, who scored 2,681, and Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 2,206, were the only players who had accumulated more points in their high school careers in the league. Maurice Watson, from the Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School, broke both Chamberlain's and Garland's records in 2012, pushing Garland to fourth on the list.
AAU While in high school, Garland also played Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball with the Philly Pride. Amauro Austin, a statistician for the Philadelphia Daily News, directed the program while Garland was there. Austin commented, "Everybody liked Ty. Not one person didn't. He was loyal, honest; just a solid-gold individual. He didn't have a malicious bone in his body". Garland often slept during the day and stayed awake at night, leading his peers to think of him as a vampire. Before becoming a senior, he led the Pride to sixth place at the under-17 national AAU tournament in Orlando, Florida. The team finished with an 8–1 record due largely to Garland's contributions.
Collegiate career
Freshman On July 9, 2009, Garland committed to play college basketball for the Hokies of Virginia Tech. He announced his decision to attend the school at a press conference at the Reebok All-American Camp. Garland had also considered joining the programs at La Salle, Nebraska, Temple, St. Bonaventure, Maryland, Seton Hall, Providence, and Butler. La Salle University is based in Garland's hometown of Philadelphia and its head coach, John Giannini, recruited him especially hard out of high school. His old coach at John Bartram High School, James Brown, supported his commitment to Virginia Tech. Assistant coach James Johnson was the man primarily responsible for recruiting Garland. Rivals.com rated the point guard a three-star recruit, and ESPN ranked him as the 31st-best player of his position in the Class of 2010. Garland officially signed a National Letter of Intent with the team on February 3, 2010, and enrolled at Virginia Tech on June 30. Garland would play his freshman season for a Virginia Tech Hokies team that had a large part of its scoring coming from Malcolm Delaney, Jeff Allen, and Dorenzo Hudson in the 2009–10 season. Delaney, their leading scorer, chose to withdraw from the 2010 NBA draft in May 2010 and returned for another season with the Hokies. Garland weighed approximately 170 lbs (77 kg) entering college, and because of his shooting guard qualities, he was not as highly rated as some of the team's other 2010 recruits, like Jarell Eddie.
On November 12, 2010, Garland made his career debut with Virginia Tech against the Campbell Fighting Camels, seeing one minute of playing time on the court and going 0-of-1 from the field. However, the Hokies easily won the game, 70–60. Garland scored his first points as a Hokie on November 26, vs Oklahoma State, putting up 6 in spite of very limited playing time. He was allowed to play more than 20 minutes for the first time in his collegiate career against Mount St. Mary's. The opposing team was easily defeated, 99–34. Seven of the ten Hokies that appeared throughout the contest played more than 20 minutes, and Garland–who recorded 16 points–was one of five to score double digits. It would be his season-high performance and also the only time he scored more than 10 points as a freshman. On March 16, 2011, Garland played a career-high 23 minutes vs Bethune-Cookman in the first round of the 2011 National Invitational Tournament (NIT), recording seven points and having perfect free throw shooting. In 6.8 minutes per game in his first season, he averaged 2.8 points, 0.3 rebounds, and 0.5 assists.
Sophomore Entering the 2011–12 season, the Hokies lost star Malcolm Delaney, who signed a conditional one-year contract with the French professional basketball team Élan Chalon following his senior year. Garland debuted as a sophomore on November 12, 2011, against East Tennessee State, making his first-ever start at the collegiate level due to the absence of Erick Green. He played 24 minutes throughout the game, recording 13 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. In Tech's next contest with Monmouth, Garland scored a career-high 18 points off the bench, shooting 7-for-7 from the field.
However, as the season progressed, head coach Seth Greenberg began giving Garland fewer minutes. Following the recovery of freshman Marquis Rankin from a torn meniscus, Garland played a total of one minute in three games. He also scored a combined six points following his initial two performances that season. On December 11, 2011, Garland did not even remove his warm-up shirt in his team's game vs Norfolk State. When Greenberg was asked about Garland's playing time, the coach said, "Marquis [Rankin] is right now a good play-starter and good on ball defender. We've got to get other guys more minutes". When asked a similar question the day before, he said that "you can't play 13 guys". On December 16, 2011, Garland announced on Twitter that he was planning to transfer out of Virginia Tech. Following his exams, he returned to his hometown of Philadelphia. Garland became the third men's basketball player to transfer out of the Hokies' team in the past academic year, following the footsteps of Ben Boggs, who moved to Valparaiso, and Manny Atkins, who would end up with Georgia State. Garland finished his sophomore year at Virginia Tech averaging 4.6 points, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 turnovers in eight appearances. In late December 2011, he began competing for La Salle. Explorers head coach John Giannini said, "We recruited Tyrone extremely hard out of high school. He is known as a scorer and can also be a very good passer and defender. He is the type of all-around guard, talent and person that will make our team better. He gives us an experienced player to continue our growth over the next 2 years. With his addition we will have tremendous team quickness and depth." Several of the team's top scorers in 2011–12 had experience playing high school basketball in the Philadelphia Public and Catholic Leagues.
Junior