Timea Gardiner

Timea Gardiner (born October 22, 2003) is a British-American college basketball player for the UCLA Bruins of the Big Ten Conference. She previously played for the Oregon State Beavers.

Early life and high school career Gardiner was born in England, where her father was playing professional basketball. She played basketball for Fremont High School in Plain City, Utah. As a senior, Gardiner was selected to play in the McDonald's All-American Game. Rated a five-star recruit and the number 6 player in the 2022 class by ESPN, she committed to play college basketball for Oregon State over offers from Stanford and UCLA. She became the highest-ranked recruit to ever sign with the program. As a sophomore, Gardiner averaged 11.6 points and 7 rebounds per game, helping her team reach the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA tournament. She was named Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year and was selected to the coaches' all-conference team. For her junior season, Gardiner transferred to UCLA.

In the 2024–25 season, Gardiner largely came off the bench but was a key perimeter shooter for the Bruins as they went on to win the Big Ten Tournament. She scored 15 points in the Elite Eight against LSU and helped lead UCLA to their first-ever Final Four. In the Final Four, they would go on to lose to the eventual national champion UConn Huskies 85–51.

Midway through the 2025–26 season, Gardiner, who had been dealing with a knee injury that had sidelined her for the first half of the season, announced she would miss the rest of the season to rehabilitate her injury and stated that she would be returning to play in the 2026–27 season. During the 2025–26 season, Gardiner and the Bruins won the National Championship.

National team career Gardiner played for the United States at the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Chile. She averaged 7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, helping her team win the gold medal.