NCAAW: Timpson’s length, shot-blocking highlight her WNBA-ready skills

The Florida State Seminoles have made a name for themselves as an offensive-minded team that plays at a breakneck pace under Brooke Wyckoff, who is now in her third full season as the program’s head coach—and they’re off to a hot start to the 2024-25 season. Florida State is currently 5-1 and fresh off a win over in-state rival Florida, with the Seminoles’ uptempo offense proving simply too much for opponents to keep up with.

That’s not to say the Seminoles lack an inside game, though. Senior forward Makayla Timpson has thrived in Wyckoff’s system, providing the rebounding, shot-blocking and overall physicality to complement Florida State’s guards, and she’s playing the best basketball of her career, averaging 20.2 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots per game.

At 6-foot-2, Timpson isn’t the biggest frontcourt player, but her impact for the Seminoles is massive nonetheless. A plus wingspan and top-notch instincts make her one of the most prolific shot-blockers in the country, and she gets her own offense within the flow of Florida State’s system, yielding consistently efficient scoring. If Timpson continues the trajectory she’s been on, expect her name to come up more often as the 2025 WNBA Draft approaches.

Honors and statistics

In high school, Timpson was named to the Georgia All-State Team by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and was ranked as the No. 48 overall recruit in the class of 2021 by ESPN HoopGurlz. She got off to a modest start as a freshman at Florida State, playing 17.8 minutes per game mostly as a reserve, though she did lead the Seminoles in field goal percentage (62.3 percent) while blocking one shot per game, earning All-ACC Freshman Team honors.

Timpson broke out as a sophomore and has gotten better in every season since. In 2022-23, she averaged 13.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game as a full-time starter, winning the ACC’s Most Improved Player award and earning nods to the All-ACC Second Team and All-Defensive Team.

As a junior, Timpson put together her strongest all-around performance to date, posting averages of 14.3 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in 29.8 minutes per game. She was once again named to the ACC All-Defensive Team and also earned All-ACC First Team honors. According to Her Hoop Stats, Timpson was one of just three players in the ACC to average a double-double during the 2023-24 season, and the 2.5 blocks per game she averaged ranked No. 12 among Division I players.

Timpson continues amassing blocked shots and rebounds for Florida State

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

To thrive as a post player in a fast-paced, guard-heavy offense, one must typically be willing to do the dirty work on defense and on the glass, all while being opportunistic with their own offense. They also must have the conditioning and athleticism to keep up with the team’s guards.

Thankfully for Florida State, that describes Timpson’s game to a T. A rangy forward with a long-armed build, Timpson has the physical profile to excel on a team that takes a lot of risks. That, most notably, comes on the defensive side of the floor, where she’s currently blocking 3.7 shots per game, as well as swiping 1.8 steals. Timpson is mobile and she’s aggressive, and that suits the Seminoles’ style of play perfectly. “Defensively she does so much for us,” says Wyckoff of Timpson. “She’s rotating, she’s blocking shots, she’s guarding the biggest player on the other side.”

The wingspan, the vertical leap and the instincts—Timpson has almost every tool (besides, perhaps, pure height) that you’d expect an elite shot-blocker to have. And they were all on display against Florida when she swatted four Gator attempts, none of them particularly kindly.

Highlights: Timpson throws a first-half block party

Where Timpson has grown, however, is on the boards. She’s made a conscious effort to continue to improve in that phase of the game, and she’s currently posting a rebound rate of 22.4 percent, which, according to Her Hoop Stats, ranks in the 99th percentile. This, too, is especially important for a Florida State team that pushes the ball as often as possible, which Timpson acknowledges with a simple philosophy: “Just stack those rebounds so we can go out in transition.”

Offensively, while Timpson gets a good amount of her points from offensive rebounds and finding openings created by the Seminoles’ dribble penetration—which, to be clear, are two skills in their own right—she’s more than just a basic rim-runner. When Timpson does assert herself, good things tend to happen: She’s scoring 1.53 points per possession on post-ups (Synergy Sports), and 24 percent of her points scored have come from the free throw line.

Will all of this be enough for WNBA scouts to overlook Timpson’s relative lack of size? During media availability at the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Wyckoff noted that Timpson understands how to attack players larger than her and how to defend them, and at the collegiate level, there’s plenty of evidence to support that. How Timpson will adjust to a much more physical professional game remains hypothetical for now, but if she keeps up her current levels of production, it will become more and more difficult for WNBA coaches and executives to look past her.

Watch her play

The SEC/ACC Challenge is fast approaching, and the Seminoles will have a matchup with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers—one of the few teams in the country who can match Florida State’s pace of play—on Dec. 4. That game will be televised on the SEC Network.

ACC play will begin around the turn of the calendar year, and Florida State will have a challenging start to its conference schedule with games against Virginia Tech (Jan. 2), Syracuse (Jan. 5) and Stanford (Jan. 9). The Seminoles will also play nationally-ranked opponents such as NC State (Feb. 9), Notre Dame (Feb. 27) and Duke (Mar. 2) later in the season; while none of these games are currently scheduled to air on national television, most of them will be available on ACC Network.

All statistics, team records and rankings for the 2024-25 NCAA season are current through Saturday, November 22, 2024.