by staff–14 Apr ’16
University of Wyoming men’s basketball head coach Allen Edwards announced Thursday the hiring of Jermaine Kimbrough as an assistant coach. Kimbrough comes to Laramie from Nevada and Cleveland State.
“My biggest point of emphasis with hiring this assistant position was to find a well-balanced guy,” Edwards said. “I didn’t want a coach that just specialized in one particular thing. I wanted a guy that’s good on the floor, good with the student-athletes, good with recruiting and good with scouting. I think Jermaine has shown the capability to excel in all those areas, so we are excited to welcome him to the Cowboy basketball family.”
Kimbrough spent the 2015-16 season under head coach Eric Musselman at Nevada. The first-year staff guided the Wolf Pack to a 24-14 overall record, including a 10-8 mark in the conference for fourth in the Mountain West regular-season standings. More importantly, Nevada accepted a bid to the CBI and won the tournament for the MW’s first postseason title in men’s basketball. With Kimbrough’s help, two Wolf Pack players earned four All-MW honors, including freshman forward Cameron Oliver being named to the All-MW Third Team, All-Defensive Team and All-Tournament Team.
Kimbrough came to Nevada after nine seasons from 2006-14 as an assistant under head coach Gary Waters at Cleveland State. During that time he helped the Vikings to a pair of Horizon League Championships, one NCAA tournament, three NIT trips and a CollegeInsider.com Tournament appearance. Cleveland State had five 20-wins campaigns in Kimbrough’s nine seasons with a 157-112 overall record. He also coached Norris Cole at CSU, who was selected in the 2011 NBA draft.
Kimbrough’s coaching career started at the NJCAA’s Howard College where he spent two seasons as an assistant from 2001-03. He moved on to serve as Director of Operations at Cleveland State in 2003-04 and Massachusetts in 2004-05. During that season the Minutemen knocked off No. 2 Connecticut, No. 20 George Washington and No. 23 Florida State. Kimbrough would move on to serve as an assistant coach for one season at IPFW before returning to Cleveland State.
During his playing career, Kimbrough spent two seasons at St. Catherine College, before transferring to Virginia Tech for two seasons from 1998-2000. He would go on to graduate from Virginia Tech with his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2001. Kimbrough played his prep career at Shaker Heights High School in Cleveland and earned all-league honors four times and all-city accolades three times. He was named second-team all-state as a senior after averaging 26 points per game.
Jermaine and his wife, Tameka, have five children.
“I’m extremely excited about this promising opportunity to work at Wyoming under coach Edwards,” Kimbrough said. “I feel like everything is in place for the Cowboys to compete for championships year after year. I look forward to getting started right away with the student-athletes and staff.”
