'Keep It Going'

Sam Timmins taps into aggression, while staying true to himself // By Mason Kelley

By Washington Huskies

February 13^th, 2019

The drill wasn’t complicated, but it was grueling.

Sam Timmins had the ball on the side of the hoop. Washington coach Mike Hopkins asked the junior to jump, dunk the basketball with one hand, grab the ball as it fell through the net and then repeat the move on the other side of the basket.

Jump. Dunk. Jump. Dunk. Jump. Dunk.

And, to make things a little more complicated, Hopkins threw in a little contact.

Jump. Foul. Dunk. Jump. Foul. Dunk.

“Keep it going,” Hopkins shouted as Timmins’ pace started to slow.

On one particular sequence, Timmins missed the dunk as Hopkins fouled the big man. But Timmins immediately grabbed the ball and threw it down with his right hand.

Seeing the aggression out of the New Zealand native fired up the Huskies’ second-year head coach.

“You missed it, you got it and you dunked it!” Hopkins exclaimed. “We’re building a machine and you’re a tank.”

The goal was to train Timmins’ mind as much as his body, so that when he takes the floor during a game, he attacks the rim every time the opportunity is presented.

When the drill was over, Timmins stepped to the free-throw line. When he made the shot, he took another. When he missed, he sprinted to the opposite end of the floor and back.

Timmins was tired, but he kept working.

When the workout was over, he was asked about the experience and his interaction with Hopkins.

“No one is really on coach Hop’s level,” he said with a laugh.

Two days later, Timmins came off the bench with the ferocity Hopkins has been trying to coax out of the center. In just 11 minutes, he had seven rebounds, four blocks and a couple of steals on the road at Utah.

For Timmins, every practice and each game is an opportunity to improve.

“It’s a massive learning experience,” Timmins said. “Every year has kind of been about learning something else.”

His current project: Harness a style of play like Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams on the court, while staying true to the laid-back personality that was cultivated as a native New Zealander.

“That’s one thing I have learned that, while it’s one of my favorite parts of New Zealanders, how laid back and chill we are, we can learn something from the Americans as far as being a bit more upbeat, especially on the basketball court where being aggressive is rewarded so much,” he said. “Being able to tap into that and just go is something I’m working on. I’m trying to get there. It’s coming out more and more.”

When Timmins was younger, he was always the biggest player on his team. He worked through drills with guards. And, in games, dunking the ball was a waste of energy.

“In New Zealand, I didn’t really dunk the ball in games that much, because I never had to,” he said. “The year we won nationals for my high school, the semis and finals, I played 80 minutes, so doing a dunk when I could make a layup was stupid, because I could take a layup, get back on defense and save some energy.”

Now at Washington, though, Timmins knows he can take advantage of his size by being more physical in the post. So his focus now is – “If you can dunk it, go up and dunk it.”

In his third season in Seattle, Timmins has spent his entire career learning and adjusting. In New Zealand, his high school gym didn’t have seating, so when his friends come to visit, they always take a little extra time looking around the arena when they’re on campus.

The reaction is always the same: “This is where you play for your university?”

Timmins is used to it now, but he had the same reaction when he was on his official visit. That was the first adjustment he made when he joined the Huskies. He had to acclimate to the scale of American college basketball, in addition to finding his way in a new culture.

“Everything is bigger and the scale of everything is massive,” Timmins said.

As time has passed, Timmins and his teammates have engaged in an ongoing cultural exchange.

“At the end of the day, I’m from New Zealand and I’m super proud to be a Kiwi,” he said. “That’s definitely what makes me who I am. At the same time, if I was just a Kiwi, no one would be able to understand what I was talking about, they would be looking at me like I was crazy.

“It’s finding a balance between keeping up with the American culture and stuff that’s going on in the basketball world.”

Then Timmins laughed.

“If I ever came home with an American accent, mum would just turn me right back around and send me back here,” he said.

The longer he is around his teammates, the more they start adopting some of Timmins’ phrases.

“They’re starting to say some words that I say,” he said. “It’s catching on. I’m not being affected, I’m affecting them.”

Every now and then Timmins will hear David Crisp or Matisse Thybulle saying “mate” in the locker room. He smiles each time he hears it.

“It’s a constant cultural exchange,” he said. “I’ve gotten to the point where I just enjoy it.”

During one of Timmins’ trips back to New Zealand, he had the opportunity to visit with Adams, who was putting on a series of camps in the country. Timmins talked to Adams about channeling that aggression on the floor, while making sure it doesn’t change who he is off the court.

“He just said, you’ll figure it out, just stay true to your Kiwi self,” Timmins said. “He’s definitely laid back off the court. On the court, you surely wouldn’t want to get in his way. That’s definitely something I need to tap into.”