Kansas men’s basketball earns commitment from Towson transfer Nicolas Timberlake

LAWRENCE — Nicolas Timberlake has committed to Kansas men’s basketball, providing the Jayhawks with one of the most highly sought-after players in the transfer portal.

Timberlake, who spent the past five years at Towson, is a lethal 3-point shooter. He has size, as he was listed on Towson’s roster this past season at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. And given the production Kansas is losing from this past season’s squad, he figures to be in contention for a significant role for the 2023-24 campaign.

“ROCK CHALK,” Timberlake said in a social media post Wednesday on Twitter, in part.

Timberlake, who visited the Jayhawks earlier this month, was also considering Connecticut and North Carolina. According to 247Sports, those were two other schools he visited after entering the transfer portal. But it was Kansas and head coach Bill Self’s coaching staff that was able to bring Timberlake into the fold.

Self was looking for shooting, with Gradey Dick and Jalen Wilson each declaring for the NBA draft. Self was looking for length on the perimeter, with Kevin McCullar Jr. also trending toward leaving for the professional ranks as well. And Timberlake, who also has the experience of playing in 122 games and starting 90 in his college career, will help provide that.

This past season, Timberlake started all 33 games he played in for Towson and averaged more than 35 minutes per contest. He shot 197-for-433 (45.5%) from the field, 92-for-221 (41.6%) from behind the arc and 98-for-116 (84.5%) from the free-throw line. Those marks would have made him one of the Jayhawks’ most prolific shooters this past season, and he also averaged 3.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and one steal per game.

Maybe the commitment will help Kansas when it comes to some of its other targets in the transfer portal, and maybe it won't. Harrison Ingram (Stanford) and Hunter Dickinson (Michigan) are two who come to mind who Self and company are after, who it would seem would benefit from playing with someone like Timberlake. And if they needed any more advice, Wilson is someone who’s said he’ll sing the praises of what the Jayhawks’ program has to offer.

“If any transfer ever, like, DM’s me or something, I’d say the best things in the world to them,” Wilson, speaking generally, said after a 2023 Barnstorming Tour event earlier this month. “I mean, obviously, I want my school to always be great and be in winning position. So, I mean, if they reach out I’ll talk to them for sure.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Nicolas Timberlake commits to KU basketball, transferring from Towson