Sam Timmins

Early life

Born in Dunedin, Otago, Timmins moved to Southland as a youth and lived there while his father played for the Southland Stags rugby union team. After his father quit the game, he and his family moved back to Dunedin and Timmins later enrolled at Otago Boys' High School. Timmins was heavily involved in rugby until he was 12 years old, playing as a lock and Number 8 for the Kaikorai club. He also played social basketball, but only began to take the game seriously after arriving at Otago Boys' High School.

Early basketball career

At age 15, Timmins became the youngest Otago Nugget ever, surpassing the record set by former UNLV All-American point guard Mark Dickel. Timmins played off the bench in two games for the Nuggets in 2013, but a stress fracture in his back kept him sidelined for the entire 2014 season.

After recovering and getting fit again by August 2014, Timmins returned to help New Zealand reach the final 16 of the 3x3 basketball tournament at the Youth Olympics in China. Two months later, he led Otago Boys' High School to the National Schools Championship and was named tournament MVP, and joined teammates Joe Cook-Green and Liam Aston on the Tournament Team. His performances in the final two games were outstanding. In the semi-final, he matched a heavily favoured Rangitoto College front line that contained Yuat Alok and Tai Wynyard – both New Zealand Breakers development players. He then recorded 26 points and 23 rebounds in the final to help Otago Boys' defeat Westlake Boys High School and win its first national secondary schools title. Then in December 2014, he had a stellar performance with 20 points in the Junior Tall Blacks' agonising 84–81 loss to Australia in the Under-18 Oceania Championship final in Fiji.

In January 2015, Timmins moved to Christchurch after the Otago Nuggets pulled out of the NBL due to financial difficulties. With no basketball opportunities left in Dunedin, Timmins made the tough decision to move to Christchurch in order to play for the Canterbury Rams and attend Middleton Grange School. With his focus set on gaining a scholarship to the United States for 2016, Timmins followed former Nuggets teammate and new Rams coach Mark Dickel up to Christchurch in order to join Canterbury's development programme. However, despite being one of the youngest players on the Rams team and having former NBA player Mickell Gladness as a teammate, Timmins started in the Rams' 2015 season opener against the Manawatu Jets on 3 April. He finished the game with 20 points and 9 rebounds, as he helped the Rams defeat the Jets, 114–98. He went on to start at centre in the next three games as well before being replaced in the starting line-up by Gladness on 24 April against the Nelson Giants. Over his four-game starting stretch, he averaged 10 points and five rebounds per game.

On 29 April 2015, Timmins signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball for the Washington Huskies in 2016–17, becoming the first player from the newly formed Mainland Eagles Basketball Academy in Christchurch to secure a college basketball scholarship. A month later, Timmins took a temporary leave from the Rams to represent New Zealand at the FIBA 3x3 Under-18 World Championship in Hungary. After helping New Zealand win the 3x3 Under-18 title, Timmins returned to Canterbury and played out the remainder of the season with the Rams. He managed 16 games with five starting assignments for the Rams in 2015, averaging 5.7 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

On 21 June 2015, Timmins was named in the Tall Blacks senior trial squad for their upcoming winter events in preparation for the 2015 FIBA Oceania Championship. However, he was later cut from the final squad in mid-July.

College career

Timmins joined the Washington Huskies in December 2015 to practice and travel with the team for the remainder of the 2015–16 season.

As a freshman in 2016–17, Timmins saw action in 31 games including 18 starts and averaged 3.2 points and 3.8 rebounds while adding 20 blocks and shooting 48.9 percent from the field. In just his fifth game as a Husky, he recorded 12 rebounds in 14 minutes against Western Kentucky. He scored a season-high 11 points and added six rebounds against Arizona on 29 January 2017. He went on to pull down 11 rebounds in 31 minutes against Colorado and a career-high tying 12 rebounds against UCLA.

On 12 July 2017, Timmins was invited to a six-day Tall Blacks camp in Auckland, ahead of a final 12-man roster being named to travel to the FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon, via preparation matches in China.

Personal

Timmins is the son of Brendon and Karen Timmins, and has a sister named Ruby. His father played 74 games for the Otago rugby team and 42 games for the Highlanders, while his mother played netball for Southland. His grandmother, Sandra McGookin, was a six-time New Zealand javelin champion.