Former Top Pitt Basketball Target Earl Timberlake Enters Transfer Portal

A former top national recruiting target of the Pitt Panthers is once again available. Will Jeff Capel try a second time to recruit him to Pitt?

Earl Timberlake has announced that after a season at Miami, Fla., he will enter the NCAA Transfer portal to look for a new basketball home. The native of DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, Maryland will no doubt have a long list of teams interested as he was a Top 30 recruit and the top ranked small forward in the Class of 2020.

Due to shoulder and ankle injuries, Timberlake was only able to play in 7 games this season and averaged 9.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals in seven games.

“I’ve been dealing with a whole lot this season as far as being away from home and ankle and shoulder injuries,” Timberlake told ESPN. “I wanted to be there for my teammates, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that putting my name in the transfer portal is the best move for my future. There’s nothing negative that happened. There’s no bad blood with Miami. I just want a fresh start. I love Coach L and the rest of the coaching staff. I just want to start over and get a fresh start somewhere else.”

Capel did a tremendous job recruiting Timberlake, which resulted in the Panthers being one of his five finalists prior to eventually signing with Miami, Fla. Pitt had Timberlake interested enough in them that he made an official visit during the weekend of the Pitt/Penn State game in August of 2019. Timberlake had a final five of Pitt, Miami, Providence, Seton Hall and South Carolina.

2020 basketball recruits including Earl Timberlake and Hunter Dickinson

The Panthers currently have five scholarships open for the upcoming season. With that likely to grow in the near future, adding an impact talent like Timberlake is a priority for Capel.

Over the weekend, Pitt officially extended an offer to highly rated 2020 4-star point guard TyTy Washington, who’s recruitment opened up after decommitting from Creighton.