Original article (Linda Cimino Introduced as Women’s Basketball Head Coach) on Binghamton University’s athletic website bubearcats.com.
Linda Cimino was introduced as the new Binghamton’s basketball head coach on Friday afternoon at a press conference in the TAU Bearcat Room of the Events Center. She is the 13th head coach in the 41-year history of the program.
Cimino arrives from Caldwell College, where she led the Division II Cougars to a 128-100 record in eight years. This includes a 90-52 mark the past four years. She arrives with the reputation as a top-notch recruiter, a tireless worker and an excellent developer of talent.
“Linda really stood out to me as an established head coach,” Director of Athletic Patrick Elliott said. “She has demonstrated a commitment to academic excellence and student-athlete welfare. Everybody I talked to told me how great of a recruiter she was. The other thing they told me that was special is that she just works. She is tireless. Going forward, our women’s basketball program is in great hands.”
“I was part of the process of interviewing the candidates,” Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger said. “Every answer she gave to a question was perfect. She is going to fit in very well here.”
When she arrived at Caldwell in 2006, Cimino inherited a program that had won just eight games the previous season and had averaged just over nine wins a season the previous four years. After climbing to double-digit wins in her first campaign, Cimino boosted that total up to 18 wins in 2007-08 and the eight-game improvement ranked among the nation’s top-20. Her last four teams reached the 17-win plateau, highlighted by a 21-win team in 2010-11.
“Everybody that I talked to about the Binghamton job told me that it was the best mid-major job on the East Coast,” Cimino said. “I am honored to be standing here as the head coach. I think Binghamton is a sleeping giant in the America East and that we can do great things. I am really looking forward to building the program, developing the players that we have and bringing in some new players.”