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Mustache magic: While chasing NCAA history with Gonzaga, Richardson Pearce’s Drew Timme has kept things casual

The sophomore’s facial hair has become a viral sensation and the talk of March Madness.

Editor’s note: This story was written before Gonzaga’s Final Four win against UCLA. They play Baylor in the NCAA championship game on Monday evening.

A spot in the Final Four was on the line, but Gonzaga’s Drew Timme was acting as if Tuesday night’s showdown with USC was a pickup game on the playground, even though he was facing a 7-footer who is projected to be a top-five pick in the NBA draft.

The former Richardson Pearce star was playing carefree and enjoying the moment — like Timme does with everything in life — and the man with the most revered mustache in college basketball showed America every side of his lighthearted personality after three signature plays in a three-minute span of the first half that brought Gonzaga closer to its first national championship and a piece of NCAA history.

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First, Timme threw down a dunk and immediately began his patented celebration that has consumed highlight shows during the NCAA Tournament, brushing his mustache with his index fingers and pointing to the sky. Next, the second-team All-American imitated the legendary Michael Jordan shrug after hitting a hook shot in the lane, as if he couldn’t believe that every shot was going in — and that he had become a March Madness idol.

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Finally, Timme drove from the top of the key, made a spin move in the lane, scored on a layup and flexed his right bicep for the cameras. The 6-10 Timme finished with a game-high 23 points — the sophomore forward’s third straight game with more than 20 points — as Gonzaga routed USC and freshman sensation Evan Mobley 85-66 to give the Zags their Division I-record 27th consecutive victory by double digits and set up a Final Four matchup with UCLA on Saturday night.

Gonzaga (30-0) is trying to become the first undefeated national champion since Indiana in 1976, and Timme is making the most of his new-found fame that started with the handlebar mustache that he has sported while averaging 21.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the NCAA Tournament.

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He has conducted an interview with 13-time NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade, and fans on Twitter are calling for a new emoji to be created to honor Timme’s facial hair that has been dubbed the “Drew Manchu,” or “Fu Man Drew” — a look that he admitted was inspired by Ben Stiller’s character White Goodman from the movie Dodgeball.

“I had no idea it was going to get the attention that it has, but it’s been cool. A lot of people liked it and think it’s funny, and that was the point of it,” Timme said. “Just to bring joy to the game and make things not as serious. I’m a big believer that when you have fun in something you’re doing, that’s when you are at your best.

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“It’s why I love the game so much, because I can express myself, have fun and be myself.”

Time of his life

Timme is having the time of his life, even though NCAA Tournament teams are sequestered in a protective bubble in Indianapolis because of the pandemic, relegated to their hotel when they aren’t playing, and unable to have in-person interaction with friends and family who are attending the event. Richardson Pearce boys basketball coach Marc Johnson is there to support his former superstar, even showing up with a Timme-like mustache, but he can only wave while standing behind cones as Timme boards the bus after games.

“It’s unfortunate,” Timme said. “I haven’t seen my high school coach in so long, and he means so much to me. I don’t get to see my family. They’ve been there every game. But if that’s what it means to play a game, then I’m totally fine with that. We’ve been able keep out outside distractions, which has been nice.”

Drew Timme with Richardson Pearce in 2019 (left) and Gonzaga in 2021.
Drew Timme with Richardson Pearce in 2019 (left) and Gonzaga in 2021.(Courtesy, Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

He has even embraced his viral Twitter battle with his mother, Megan, who has playfully asked him to shave his mustache.

Timme hasn’t always looked like this — he had a shaved head as a high school freshman, Johnson said — but as the free spirit began to grow his mad facial hair soon after that, he would often tease his mother that he was going to go to school with a mustache, before sticking to a full beard or goatee each time.

“I will say it’s not my favorite look,” Megan said. “Drew likes to have a good sense of humor, and we like to banter back and forth, so trolling my own kid publicly has been kind of fun. At the end of the day, I’m all about Drew being Drew. It’s not face tattoos. If he’s going to have fun with something, I could get behind this, as long as it comes with a good outcome.”

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Despite becoming an internet sensation, Timme remains humble and credits those around him for his success, starting with his parents, who are former college athletes — Megan a tennis player at Stephen F. Austin and his father, Matt, who played basketball at SMU and professionally in Finland and Italy. Timme said he enhanced his game while being coached by former NBA All-Star Jermaine O’Neal in his final season of AAU basketball, and by working out last summer with former Plano Prestonwood Christian star Julius Randle, now an All-Star with the New York Knicks.

Johnson lives on the street where Timme grew up, and it wasn’t just the fact that Timme was a four-star recruit and averaged 22.9 points, 13.4 rebounds and 5.4 assists as a senior that made him stand out.

“I have a son his age, so Drew spent a lot of time at our house,” Johnson said. “He’s a goofy kid. He loves to have fun, he likes to make people laugh, he’s a really good guy, and his friends know that he cares about them.”

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One of the guys

Johnson’s son, Bryce, was a teammate of Timme’s at Pearce and recalls the “one-of-a-kind player” just being one of the guys — even though Timme may someday surpass five-time NFL Pro Bowl defensive lineman Ray Childress and soccer Hall of Famer and five-time MLS champion Jeff Agoos as the most famous Pearce alumnus for athletics. Timme is a huge fan of Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki — and all of D-FW’s professional sports teams — he played football as a freshman at Pearce before giving that up, he spent a lot of time playing pickup soccer games in high school, he was often involved in marathon video game battles, and he is majoring in sports management, with a business minor.

“We would always play Xbox,” Bryce said. “We would bring our whole TV and console over and just play all night — NBA 2K, Fortnite, Call of Duty.”

When it came time to choose a college, Timme visited Alabama, Illinois and Texas A&M, but the nation’s 10th-ranked center in the Class of 2019 fell in love with the family atmosphere at Gonzaga and was eager to play for the private, Catholic university in Spokane, Wash., that has produced NBA big men Kelly Olynyk, Domantas Sabonis (a two-time All-Star), Zach Collins, Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura in the last decade.

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Possessing what some experts have called the best footwork in college basketball, and averaging team highs in points (19.0 per game) and rebounds (7.2 per game) for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Timme is viewed as a potential late-first or mid-second round pick in this year’s NBA draft if he decides to leave college early — a decision that won’t be made by Timme and his family until after the season.

“I have not even thought about that,” Timme said. “Focusing for these games have been so much. Nothing else really matters to me right now.”

BACK IN THE DAY

Check out Drew Timme’s highlights from his time at Richardson Pearce.

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