Miami basketball 4-star signee Earl Timberlake adds wing depth

The Miami basketball program added wing depth with the addition of four-star 6’6 signee Earl Timberlake to their class of 2020. Timberlake is the fifth highest-rated signee in Miami basketball history.

The Miami basketball program finally received a National Letter of Intent from four-star wing Earl Timberlake on Wednesday the school announced. Timberlake committed to Miami last fall but choose to wait until the spring signing period to officially join the Hurricanes. Timberlake joins four-star signee Matt Cross.

Timberlake is the 27th ranked player in the Class of 2020, the fourth-ranked small forward and the top-ranked player in Maryland. Lonnie Walker who signed with Miami in 2017, 2008 signee DeQuan Jones and 2016 signees Dewan Hernandez and Bruce Brown are the only signees in Miami history rated higher than Timberlake.

Timberlake joins with fellow four-star forward Matt Cross in November to give Miami the 35th ranked signing class in 2020. Cross and Timberlake provide the Hurricanes with a small but talented freshman tandem to add to the roster in 2020-21. Miami is looking to turn the program around after consecutive losing seasons.

The losing seasons are the first during the Jim Larranaga era at Miami. The Hurricanes roster has been hindered the last two seasons after Miami was wrongly implicated in the Adidas bribery scandal that was announced in September 2017. Larranaga spoke about the additions of Timberlake and Cross.

"“A tremendous competitor and outstanding two-way player, Earl has the ability to elevate our program as he elevates his game. He comes from one of the most traditionally strong high school basketball programs in the country. That has prepared him very well to compete at the highest level of college basketball immediately.“We’re very excited about having Earl and Matt join us…When you add Earl, Matt and [sit-out transfer] Nysier Brooks to our roster, we have size, skill and a toughness that will allow us to compete with the best teams in the ACC, which will then allow us to compete for the ACC Championship and national championship.”"

The additions of Cross and Timberlake offset the graduations of graduate transfer Keith Stone and guard Dejan Vasiljevic off last season’s team. The Miami basketball program is going to have to bring in bigger recruiting classes to get back to the 13 scholarship limit on the team. Miami now has 11 scholarship players.

The Hurricanes will lose guards Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty, forward Sam Waardenburg and centers, Rodney Miller and Brooks after the 2020-21 basketball season. Adding a talent like Timberlake should propel Miami back to the upper half of the ACC. The Hurricanes will be extremely deep on the perimeter.

Timberlake and 6’7 Cross give Miami good size on the wing to team with Lykes, McGusty and sophomores Isaiah Wong and Harlond Beverly. The Hurricanes will be able to use a four out, one in the post lineup often in 2020-21. Miami should be very improved offensively next season and one of the better offensive teams in the ACC.