Timberlynn Yeast with her mother, Tiffany, and father, Terry, who obviously approved of her decision to commit to Buffalo.
Timberlynn Yeast is headed to Buffalo for her collegiate basketball career.
The Mercer County senior standout announced on Twitter Monday that she was committing to Buffalo. She had over 20 Division I offers.
“I know my kid pretty well and can tell when she is really interested in something. She put her phone up more on the trip than she ever does,” her father, Terry Yeast, said about the family’s official visit to Buffalo over the weekend. “Their facilities are probably the best I had seen of all the places we have been. I really tried every way not to like the place because it is an 8 1/2-hour drive (from Harrodsburg). But even I came back home and could not stop talking about it.”
Yeast averaged 20.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last year while shooting 52 percent overall from the field and 66 percent at the foul line (she got to the foul foul line 263 times in 31 games).
The Mercer senior has played in 134 games and scored 2,105 points (15.7 per game) and 996 rebounds (7.4 per game), 408 assists (3.0 per game), 337 steals (2.4 per game), and 79 blocks. She’s also a career 53 percent shooter overall from the field.
Yeast had a terrific summer with the West Virginia Thunder and helped her team win the Under Armour Under 17 National Championship.
She was looking for a fast-paced offense and likes what first-year coach Becky Burke has planned. Burke came to Buffalo from USC Upstate. She played at Louisville and was on the 2009 Final Four team. She still ranks fifth in all-time 3-pointers (249) at Louisville and is in the 1,000-point club.
However, an even better local connection for Yeast was new assistant coach Wyatt Foust, the former Murray High School coach who was also Yeast’s coach for Kentucky Premier in AAU play earlier. He had 60-7 prep mark at Murray. He was director of basketball operations at Murray University last year.
“He was her travel ball coach in eighth grade. They built a good relationship and there was just always a connection with him,” Terry Yeast said. “When he went to Buffalo, that relationship really got back on track. She always felt good about him. I was always told that where you send your child know they will be well taken care of. I feel that way about Buffalo.”
Another Buffalo assistant, Candyce Wheeler, was Burke’s Louisville teammate on the 2009 Final Four team and had been on her staff at USC Upstate. She was also an assistant coach at Bellarmine for four years and Western Kentucky assistant coach.
Assistant coach Asia Dozier played at South Carolina and the Gamecocks went 121-18 during her four years and won three SEC championships. She was a three-year team captain and played in 131 career games.
“The resume of the coaching staff is just unreal,” Terry Yeast said.
Buffalo was 25-9 last year and lost to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament first round. In 2019 Buffalo beat Rutgers in the NCAA tourney opener before falling to Connecticut and finished 24-10.
“They have had a lot of success. The former coach (Felisha Legette-Jack) got the head job at Syracuse,” Terry Yeast said. “This is a program that is used to winning.”
Timberlynn Yeast had three more official visits planned and originally hoped to make her college choice by mid-October before her senior season started.
“She said, ‘Dad when you know, you know and I want to go to Buffalo,’” Terry Yeast said. “She knew she was ready to commit so she did it.”
