Kansas basketball’s March Madness win was better than Nicolas Timberlake anticipated

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Sitting at his locker Wednesday, Nicolas Timberlake could only venture to guess what Mach Madness is really like.

Timberlake, Kansas basketball’s graduate senior guard, had never played in the NCAA tournament before. Prior to transferring in from Towson ahead of this season, his teams had always fallen short. Around this time the last handful of years, you’d find Timberlake trying to avoid watching March Madness at all.

Fast forward to Thursday, and Timberlake was all smiles after the Jayhawks’ 93-89 win against Samford in the round of 64. Timberlake, fresh off a season-high 19 points, stood tall in the Kansas (23-10) locker room. The moment presented itself to Timberlake and the No. 4-seed Jayhawks, and they all met it against No. 13-seed Samford (29-6).

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“Better than I would imagine,” Timberlake said postgame about his first NCAA tournament experience. “Yeah, I mean, we let them — they got back in the game. Shot the crap out of the ball in the second half, which we knew that’s what they can go to. So, getting that win was big.”

Maybe the movie Kansas chose to watch as a team ahead of the game Thursday had something to do with Timberlake’s performance. Jayhawks coach Bill Self joked Wednesday it was between “Barbie” and “The Boys in the Boat,” and they chose the latter. There’s a connection between what the characters in “The Boys in the Boat” experienced, Self seemed to allude to, and the trials Kansas has had to deal with this season.

Regardless, Timberlake enjoyed one of his better offensive performances of the season. He finished shooting 5-for-8 from the field, 3-for-6 from behind the arc and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. He also added a couple of rebounds and a few assists as he dealt with foul trouble.

Consistency has been something Timberlake has struggled with over the course of this season, especially offensively, but all that seemed to be in the past Thursday. A day earlier, on Wednesday, Jayhawks assistant coach Norm Roberts highlighted how well Timberlake has handled the trials of recent months. Roberts wanted Timberlake to do what they always wanted Timberlake to do, which is shoot the ball well, be a factor on the perimeter and switch defensively.

“It’s just a testament to his resilience, man,” Kansas senior center Hunter Dickinson said after the win against Samford. “It shows a lot of character and resilience, like I said earlier. He could have easily folded and curled into a shell after some bad games like that, but he keeps coming to work every day with a great smile, great attitude. And if anybody deserved to have a great game and have those winning plays it’s (Nicolas) Timberlake.”

The challenges don’t stop just because Timberlake has won the first NCAA tournament game of his college career. Up next Saturday is a No. 5-seed Gonzaga team that’s set up to send Kansas home. But now there’s a weight lifted off the shoulders of Timberlake and his teammates, especially considering many didn’t anticipate the Jayhawks still being alive at this point in March Madness.

Time will tell if Timberlake hits a shot like the 3-pointer he nailed to put Kansas up 86-79 with a little less than three minutes remaining in the second half. Time will tell if he has to step up and give the Jayhawks a couple of free throws with less than a minute left, to put them up 92-89. But if he’s ever in that position again, he’ll know he’s done it before.

“All these games are going to be intense,” Timberlake said Thursday. “It’s March Madness. It’s what everyone plays for. To get here is a great opportunity, and we have another championship game we have to play on Saturday. So, we’ve got to get back to the hotel, rest, and start scouting Gonzaga.”

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: Kansas basketball's Nicolas Timberlake enjoys first NCAA tournament game