Chad Timberlake in the Czech Republic
Chad Timberlake was the Player of the Year in the NEC during his final year with the Knights and played all 40 minutes in the conference tourney title game loss to Monmouth University. FDU was 14-4 in the NEC last season and 20-12 overall under the senior leadership of Timberlake. He now lives about three hours from Prague.
Timberlake wrote in November, “This is my first time out of the U.S., so everything is different, from grocery shopping to even going to the bank. The team provides an apartment, a car, a key to the arena and plane tickets for my mother to come visit.”
A guard, Timberlake was averaging 16.2 points and 2.5 assists in Czech league games in late November. The other American on his team is Travis Williams, who played at Hampton University in Virginia.
“This is my first time out of the U.S., so everything is different, from grocery shopping to even going to the bank.” — Chad Timberlake |
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“This is the top division of play and the players here are skilled,” Timberlake adds. “One-on-one they aren’t that effective, but as a team they are extremely good. We have two practices a day, so I try to squeeze in meals and some time to see what’s going on back home in Brooklyn. In my free time I’m mostly online, reading, studying the Bible or cooking.”
In Europe, practice is generally twice a day and games once or twice a week. That is a big difference from the NCAA’s Division I, where most schools practice once a day and have games two or three times a week.
Last year, Timberlake led FDU to the regular-season NEC title — and a berth in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). He won three of the last five Player of the Week honors in the NEC and ranked in the top 15 in the NEC in scoring at 15.5 points per game, in assists at 4.0 and in rebounding at 5.4 an outing.
He helped FDU win 11 straight games late in the season, and during that streak he averaged 18.8 points, 6.2 boards and 4.2 assists per game. He scored more than 1,300 points in his college career.
The Czech Republic league is not as strong as Turner’s French league. As is the case for many central European leagues, the American imports — normally at least two per team — handle most of the scoring load for the top teams in the Czech league. Some of the Americans playing in the Czech league as the season began included Peter Mulligan (Manhattan College), Tim Lyle (James Madison University), Sherman Rivers (College of William and Mary) and Lamar Butler, who helped lead George Mason University to the Final Four in 2006.
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“My biggest adjustment has been being away from loved ones — my mother, girlfriend, friends and family,” wrote Timberlake. “I bought a headset when I got out here and I can talk to them through the laptop. When I compare this with the NEC, it is like my sophomore year at FDU, when our team was probably in the top four or five in the league. We have our struggles here and there. There are a lot more possessions in the game (which I like) since it has a 24-second shot clock. This makes the game faster. They also play a lot of zones out here. It’s almost like playing against Monmouth every other night.”
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For a print copy of FDU Magazine, featuring this and other stories, contact Rebecca Maxon, editor, 201-692-7024 or maxon@fdu.edu.