Linda Cimino suffered one of the most unbearable tragedies a child could face — the loss of a parent. But that experience, coupled with a strong upbringing, helped her develop the perseverance and initiative required of a head coach.
Binghamton University introduced Cimino as its women’s basketball head coach on April 11.
“My father was a police officer and died in the line of duty — left my mom five kids under the age of nine,” Cimino said. “My mom worked to provide for us. It is something I always watched her do. From that moment on, I’ve always been a worker. Don’t make excuses. Everything I’ve gotten in my life, I have worked for. It is just my makeup and I hope that it is contagious.”
Cimino is reputed as a relentless recruiter and has a track record of developing her players to their fullest potential — qualities that should go a long way to help a struggling BU program that has won only 11 games in the past two seasons.
“Linda is a tremendous head coach and will do an outstanding job at Binghamton University,” said Kim Barnes Arico, Cimino’s former coach at Adelphi University and current head women’s basketball coach at University of Michigan. “She is excellent at recruiting and does everything in a first-class way. Her excellence at connecting with others and her great passion and high energy will help her do a tremendous job.”
The Bearcats need to rebuild from the ground up, something with which Cimino has had firsthand experience. She spent the last eight seasons at the helm of Division II Caldwell College, where she inherited a team that had won only eight games the previous season. By year two, the team had won 18 games and proved a serious contender in the Central Athletic Collegiate Conference (CACC).
Under Cimino, Caldwell transformed into a conference powerhouse. While the program carried an unimpressive 39-71 record in the four years prior to Cimino’s taking the reins, the following eight years saw the Cougars’ record ascend to 128-100.
“When I took over the Caldwell program, they were a single-digit win program and they were kind of in disarray,” Cimino said. “I built the team from the foundation up. I didn’t look to make a quick fix. I looked to bring in good four-year players that were going to be in the program and be program kids. So same thing here. I plan on developing the talent already here, through individual instruction and assistant coaches helping out and then bringing in solid, strong Division I players to help build a program around.”
Cimino has a hefty job cut out for her. The Bearcats will lose the starting backcourt of senior forward Stephanie Jensen and senior guard Vaneeshia Paulk to graduation. They will return only three starters from a five-win team: sophomore forward Morgan Murphy, junior forward Sherae Swinson and sophomore guard Kandace Newry.
Outside of those three, Binghamton lacks experienced players on its roster. Rising sophomore guard Kim Albrecht and sophomore center Jessa Molina played sporadically through their first two years in the program. Freshman forward Kristin Ross showed some signs of promise in her first year at Binghamton, but played in only 17 games. Freshman guard Kylie Libby appeared in only three games in her debut season.
However, Cimino is prepared to do whatever it takes to turn BU into an America East contender. She already has a plan she believes will steer the Bearcats onto the right course.
“We need to start with a strong wing, a strong point guard and a strong center,” Cimino said. “You can’t just plug in holes and do a quick fix, because that never works. It is going to be a fresh start for everyone, whether they are a returning starter or someone who didn’t play at all last year. Everybody is going to start fresh right from the beginning and have the same opportunity to prove that they are ready to play.”
Cimino has a history of identifying talent and landing prized recruits. While at Caldwell, she recruited and coached three consecutive CACC Rookie of the Year winners, as well as 12 All-Conference selections. Her biggest recruiting accomplishment may have been landing 2014 Darktronics East Region Player of the Year Jeanette Anderson.
“I recruit the whole person, not just the basketball player,” Cimino said. “[Anderson] was a player I saw that I loved. I went to her AAU coach and said, ‘I want that girl.’ She struggled with math academically and every Monday I would call her guidance counselor. I arranged to get her pre-morning tutoring and afternoon tutoring. She ended up passing math. Now she is a 3.0 All-American and graduating.”
Cimino has already demonstrated her powerful recruiting ability with the signing of her first recruit at Binghamton in point guard Jasmine Sina from the Gill St. Bernard School in New Jersey. Sina is a talented distributor and 3-point shooter and should play a major role on this year’s Bearcat squad.
“This is an untapped resource here,” Cimino said of recruiting top talent to Binghamton. “You have a great facility, great academics and great administration backing it up with solid funding. There is no reason why we should be coming in last place in the America East. In terms of basketball and recruiting, it is a sleeping giant that hasn’t been woken up yet and hopefully we can wake it up.”
Make no mistake, the reconstruction of BU’s women’s basketball program will take time and the team may struggle to win games next year. But Cimino will measure success and improvement in other ways.
“Next year, success to me is that we compete in every game,” Cimino said. “The players play as hard as they are capable of playing and we play together as one unit. We do not have to win every game, but we have to compete and be competitive. That is baby steps. Success next year is that they get better every single day.”