With both of Binghamton’s basketball teams participating in their first official practices this past week, hoops season is looming near. The men’s basketball team inaugurated its preseason with an open practice at 3 p.m. on Friday while the women’s team scheduled its first practice for 4 p.m. on Monday, which was closed to media.
The men’s team
Head coach Tommy Dempsey addressed the media while his team warmed up in the West Gym. Due to a change in NCAA regulation two years ago, the coaches are now able to train with their players 12 months out of the year, so that the first practice “isn’t what it used to be.” The entire team — including its seven freshmen — are thus already more or less in Division I shape, having passed the summer months working on individual weaknesses and personal development. The team should be ready to tackle what Dempsey has planned for the upcoming season.
“We plan to press a lot more this year, so that’s something that takes a lot of time,” he said on Friday. “So we’ll start right here from day one working on our press, working on our half court defensive concepts. We’ll be defensive first, and that’s what we’ll do primarily this weekend.”
The plan is to play 10 or 11 players in the first half of games so that the team can keep up its energy and maintain the fast-paced style Dempsey aims to fully implement this year. With each member of the class of 2014-15 standing 6’5” or higher and noted for his athletic prowess, the Bearcats should have the necessary depth.
“I think we’ll be able to get up and down, we’ll be able to press and run more, mostly because of our depth,” Dempsey explained. “Because it’s hard to play guys 30-plus minutes a game and play with the type of pace that we’re looking to play at.”
Another of the first points Dempsey and the coaching staff will be looking at in the upcoming weeks — in addition to a “coachability” and a positive spirit amongst the players — are the rotations.
“We’ve looked at a lot of groups over the summer, and even in the fall here … where we’ve scrimmaged a little bit at the end of each workout and tried to put some different guys together,” Dempsey said. “But it’s in such short doses — because our workouts were only usually 40 minutes — that it’s hard to get a true indication of what the pecking order is, who belongs where. And this is the time for the players to figure that out for us.”
The women’s team
Head coach Linda Cimino received her first verbal commitment for the 2015-16 class in Western Wayne High School-star Rebecca Carmody. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 14.1 points per game as a junior last season and earned All-Lackawanna League honors, according to a source.
The Bearcats will return six players, only one of whom started last year, in senior forward Sherae Swinson. Cimino recruited four scholarship players to the class of 2014-15, though sophomore Alyssa James must sit out the season due to NCAA transfer regulation. The 6-foot-1 forward came with Cimino from Caldwell College.
The program is expected to endure through a rocky rebuilding phase in Cimino’s first year at the helm. Of the team’s major contributors last year, three graduated, one transferred and one quit the team last month. But Cimino, who is widely known as a tireless recruit and an even more diligent coach, has an eye to the future, and will look to set the stage from here. First, however, she’ll need to challenge her current players to rise to the occasion and perform against all odds this season.
“Everybody has a 100% open chance to get on that court,” Cimino said. “All we are looking for are girls who are going to work, have a positive attitude, and be committed to the process. I think we have a good process in place … I think that if everybody does the right thing they will see some kind of opportunity for themselves on the court this season.”
For more updates on Binghamton’s basketball team’s, follow BingBBallBlog on Twitter. Also keep on eye out for our season preview issue next month.
E.Jay Zarett contributing reporting to this article.