Timmons Has Seen the Downside to Husky Basketball More Than Once
If losing breeds character, Sam Timmons finds himself set for life.
The Washington big man, by way of New Zealand, has experienced more than his share of setbacks. An overabundance of defeats. More stumbles than he can keep track of.
As the Huskies (12-15 overall, 2-12 Pac-12) bring a nine-game losing streak into Saturday afternoon's game against California (11-15, 5-8) at Alaska Airlines Arena, the 6-foot-11 senior center has suffered through the more than month-long misery like everyone else.
Yet Timmons is the only holdover from the UW's 2016-17 team that dropped its final 13 games of that season, setting the school record for continuous futility.
He has the unwanted position of being part of each of the Husky basketball teams that hold the two longest losing streaks in school history.
How these UW squads rank in the end still remains to be seen.
Timmons just can't win in this situation.
Either way, he leaves Washington on the team with the longest losing stretch, whether it be the 2017 club or his current Huskies should they drop their next five games.
"Losing is part of the game," Timmons said, taking it all in stride. "Part of an athlete's journey is losing and how you deal with it."
He seems to be holding up well and, as the video shows, he speaks so eloquently.
As a freshman, Timmons started each of the 13 losses for a team that finished 9-22 and 2-16 in the conference.
Those Huskies were built around fellow freshman Markelle Fultz, a high-scoring guard who would become the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick going to the Philadelphia 76ers. However, Fultz didn't play in seven of the final eight games that season because of injuries.
That 2017 team was unlike this one in that it got severely pounded on occasion, losing games by 41, 32 and 22, even with Fultz in the lineup for the worst thumping.
The current Huskies haven't been beaten by more than 14 all season, choosing to lose close one after close one.
Timmons has started only the last game of this streak, against Stanford, scoring four points and handing out a nifty behind-the-back pass for an assist.
Asked to compare the two situations, the player from Down Under maintained his ever cheery approach. He sees positive similarities.
"From the outside looking in, it would be easy to see how a team going through adversity like this would start to splinter and spread apart," Timmons said. "But this team and that team have stayed together."
Lucky for him, his teams as a UW sophomore and junior let him enjoy considerable success along the way, finishing 21-13 and 27-9.
