CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State assistant men's basketball coach Jermaine Kimbrough has been selected to participate in Villa 7, a unique career development opportunity for the truly elite assistant coaches across the country.
The program brings together university athletics directors and the country's elite assistant coaches in an effort to prepare the next generation of college basketball leaders.
The Consortium, presented in partnership with Nike, will be held in Beaverton, Oregon, on May 6-7.
One of the top young coaches in the college game today, Kimbrough is in his second stint at CSU and recently concluded his 10th year as an assistant coach.
During his time at CSU, Kimbrough has helped the Vikings to a pair of Horizon League Championships and five postseason berths over the last seven seasons. The 2009 squad advanced to the final 32 of the NCAA tournament after an opening round win over Wake Forest.
In September of 2013, Kimbrough was ranked as the third best assistant coach in the Horizon League by Next Up Recruits.
Kimbrough, 35, is responsible for working with the Viking point guards in practice. He oversees the various CSU basketball camps and assists in monitoring the academic progress of the Viking players.
A 2001 graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in psychology, Kimbrough began his coaching career at Howard College in 2001, helping the Hawks win 23 straight games to climb to as high as No. 2 in the nation in the NJCAA poll.
He left Howard in 2003 to return to his native Cleveland to take over as an administrative assistant for the Viking basketball program for the 2003-04 season.
After leaving Cleveland in 2004, Kimbrough served assistant coaching stints at both Massachusetts (2004-05) and IPFW (2005-06).
In his lone season at UMass, he helped the Minutemen to upsets of No. 2 Connecticut, No. 20 George Washington and 23rd-ranked Florida State. He also coached two Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year winners, Anthony Anderson and Rashaun Freeman.
At IPFW, Kimbrough helped the Mastodons set a then school-record for wins as a Division I program with 10.
Kimbrough's skill as a recruiter was evident very early in his coaching career when he helped Howard College land Je'Kel Foster. Foster earned first team NJCAA All-America honors as a sophomore before transferring to Ohio State, where he earned second team All-Big 10 honors as a senior in 2005-06.
A varsity starter as a freshman at Shaker Heights High, Kimbrough was named all-league four times and all-city three times during his high school career when his teams averaged 19 wins a season.
A second team all-state selection after averaging better than 26 points a game as a senior, Kimbrough attended Virginia Tech for his collegiate career. He earned ESPN Player of the Game twice during his career, vs. Wake Forest and Virginia.
