Towson’s Timberlake goes from unranked high school player to Jayhawks’ portal addition
Nick Timberlake has progressed from an unranked basketball prospect who received no NCAA Div. I scholarship offers his senior year at Braintree (Massachusetts) High School to a career 1,500-point scorer at Towson University and now a possible — perhaps even likely — starter at tradition-rich blueblood Kansas.
“I felt like I had spurts of being a Division 1 player and I feel like I could have probably gone Division 1,” Timberlake, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound guard told the Patriot Ledger newspaper in a recent interview.
“I just don’t know why people were afraid or didn’t want to pull the trigger on me,” added Timberlake, who announced Wednesday he is leaving Towson after five years to play one final season of college hoops at KU.
He chose the Jayhawks as a transfer portal destination over North Carolina, UConn and others.
Timberlake has gone from playing limited minutes in 2018-19 and 19-20 at Towson to starting all 85 games he’s played in over the past three seasons. The sharpshooter who hit 41.6% of his threes in 2022-23 averaged 17.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists a game for Towson, a team that offered him a scholarship after his post-graduate year at Kimball Union Academy.
“My sophomore year I only scored when I got an offensive rebound and put it back up,” Timberlake said in a video interview on the Towson athletic department Website.
“I really wasn’t a focal point of the offense like that. These past two years I’ve kind of been not ‘the guy’ but someone everyone looks to put the ball in the basket.”
Towson coach Pat Skerry said in the Towson website piece that Timberlake “didn’t come in as a knock down shooter. He’s become one because it’s routine for him every day.”
The 24-year-old Timberlake hit 92 of 221 (.416) on three-point attempts during the 2022-23 season for 21-12 Towson.
“He doesn’t take any days off,” Skerry stated. “I always thought he was a good passer when I saw him in high school. Because of his body and his feel for the game he’s a lot more comfortable handling the basketball.”
Timberlake dished 79 assists against 78 turnovers for a Towson team that averaged 72 points a game this past season.
“He’s always had that edge to him. I think that’s what’s made him a special player and I think that’s what’s going to allow him to have a long professional career,” Skerry said. “He’s going to be determined to prove people wrong.”
Towson did not reach the NCAA Tournament in Timberlake’s five years with the Tiger program, which competes in the Colonial Athletic Association. The (25-9) Tigers won the league title in 2021-22.
“The team was so skilled. We knew where everyone was on the floor at any given point. It literally felt like one person out there,” Timberlake said of last year’s squad.
Timberlake, a two-time first-team all-conference player, had some spectacular scoring outbursts during the 2022-23 season. The eighth-leading scorer in program history (career leader in threes made and attempted) totaled 34 points versus Charleston, 32 versus Hofstra, 31 against Hampton, 29 versus Delaware and 27 against UMass.
He’s hit seven threes in a game three times in his career and averaged a team-leading 35.7 minutes a game in 2022-23.
He’s No. 25
Timberlake is ranked the 25th best player in the NCAA transfer portal by 247sports.com.
“He’s a tough and athletic scorer who can put the ball in the hole from all three levels and plays well through contact.” writes Travis Branham of 247sports.com. “He’s been a high priority target for some of the biggest programs in the country. He will make for an instant offensive boost on day one,” Branham added.
Personal info
Timberlake, who goes by both Nicolas and Nick, is a huge lover of Boston pro sports. His Towson bio indicates his favorite pro teams are the Boston Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins and New England Patriots. His hometown of Braintree, Massachusetts is 13 miles from Boston.
The roster
KU currently has 10 scholarship players on the 2023-24 roster.
They are: Timberlake, returnees Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams, Ernest Udeh, Zuby Ejiofor and Kyle Cuffe, plus freshmen Marcus Adams, Elmarko Jackson, Chris Johnson and Jamari McDowell.
Cuffe has not yet announced if he’ll be back or enter the transfer portal. KU could add two to three additional players from the portal, depending on Cuffe’s decision.
Former Michigan big man Hunter Dickinson arrives for a visit on Thursday. Former Texas guard Arterio Morris was on campus for a visit Wednesday. Former Stanford wing Harrison Ingram will visit KU on Sunday.
The Jayhawks will have 12, not 13, scholarships next season because of self-imposed penalties involving the NCAA’s ongoing case against KU hoops.
