Cindy Russo
Biographical details
Born	(1952-09-07) September 7, 1952 (age 71) Portsmouth, Virginia
Playing career
1972–1975	Old Dominion

Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1975–1977	Old Dominion (asst.)
1977–1978	FIU
1978–1980	Lamar
1980–2015	FIU

Head coaching record
Overall	707–408 (.634)

Cindy Russo (born September 7, 1952) served as the women's basketball head coach at Florida International and Lamar. Retiring in January 2015,^[1]^[2] her career spanned 39 years with 38 of those years as a head coach. She had several accomplishments over her career. She guided the FIU Panthers to 20 consecutive winning seasons. Her teams also achieved 20 win seasons 18 times. Her teams participated in six NCAA Division I women's basketball tournaments, seven WNIT tournaments, and two NCAA Division II Tournaments.^[3]

Russo was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and graduated from Old Dominion University in 1975.^[4]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
FIU Golden Panthers (AIAW independent) (1977–1978)
1977–78	FIU	8–14
Lamar Lady Cardinals^[5] (AIAW Independent) (1978–1980)
1978–79	Lamar	16–11
1979–80	Lamar	20–11
FIU Golden Panthers^[6] (AIAW Independent) (1980–1982)
1980–81	FIU	7–13
1981–82	FIU	27–10			AIAW Small College First Round^[7]
FIU Golden Panthers^[6] (NCAA Division II independent) (1982–1987)
1982–83	FIU	17–7			NCAA D-II First Round^[7]
1983–84	FIU	17–11
1984–85	FIU	22–6
1985–86	FIU	26–2			NCAA D-II First Round^[7]
1986–87	FIU	21–7			NCAA D-II Second Round^[7]
FIU Golden Panthers^[8] (New South Women's Athletic Conference/Trans America Athletic Conference^[9]) (1987–1998)
1987–88	FIU	21–7	9–3	2nd
1988–89	FIU	20–7	11–1	1st
1989–90	FIU	20–9	10–2	T–1st
1990–91	FIU	16–13	7–5	3rd
1991–92	FIU	23–10	10–2	T–1st	WNIT Consolation^[7]
1992–93	FIU	25–6	12–0	1st	WNIT Third Place^[7]
1993–94	FIU	25–4	11–1	1st	NCAA D-I First Round
1994–95	FIU	27–5	15–1	1st	NCAA D-I Second Round
1995–96	FIU	23–5	16–0	1st
1996–97	FIU	21–9	12–4	1st	NCAA D-I First Round
1997–98	FIU	29–2	15–1	1st	NCAA D-I Second Round
FIU Golden Panthers^[6]^[10] (Sun Belt Conference) (1998–2013)
1998–99	FIU	23–7	9–3	2nd	NCAA D-I First Round
1999–2000	FIU	16–13	10–6	T–3rd
2000–01	FIU	20–10	11–5	2nd (East)	WNIT First Round^[7]
2001–02	FIU	27–6	13–1	1st (East)	NCAA D-I Second Round
2002–03	FIU	19–11	9–5	T–2nd (East)	WNIT First Round^[7]
2003–04	FIU	0–16*	0–9*
2004–05	FIU	18–11	7–7	4th (East)
2005–06	FIU	19–13	9–5	3rd (East)	WNIT Second Round^[7]
2006–07	FIU	16–14	9–9	3rd (East)
2007–08	FIU	13–18	8–10	4th (East)
2008–09	FIU	6–24	4–14	6th (East)
2009–10	FIU	14–16	9–9	T–4th (East)
2010–11	FIU	16–16	10–6	2nd (East)
2011–12	FIU	23–11	10–6	3rd (East)	WNIT Second Round
2012–13	FIU	19–13	12–8	3rd (East)	WNIT First Round
FIU Panthers^[6] (Conference USA) (2013–2015)
2013–14	FIU	15–18	6–10	T–9th^[11]
2014–15	FIU	3–13**	0–5**
Total:		707–395 (.642)
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion

* 2003–04 wins vacated by the NCAA; FIU originally finished 4th in the East Division.
** Partial season. Coach Russo resigned effective immediately on January 22, 2015. Interim head coach completed the season. Inge Nissen became interim head coach and went 0–13 (all in C-USA), for the team to finish 3–26 (0–18 C-USA) and in 14th place.^[12]

References

^ David J. Neale (January 22, 2015). "Longtime FIU women's basketball coach Cindy Russo retires". Miami Herald. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
^ Tim Reynolds (Associated Press) (January 22, 2015). "Cindy Russo resigns as FIU coach". ESPN. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
^ "Cindy Russo - Head Coach". Florida International University. Archived from the original on 2016-06-09.
^ "Cindy Russo". FIU. 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
^ "2012–13 Women's Basketball Information Guide" (PDF). Lamar Athletics. p. 80. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "2015–16 Women's Basketball" (PDF). Conference USA. pp. 15–18. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "All-time postseason results" (PDF). 2014-15 FIU Women's Basketball Media Guide. Florida International University. pp. 59–60.
^ "Yearly Standings" (PDF). 2014–15 Atlantic Sun Conference Women's Basketball Record Book. Atlantic Sun Conference. pp. 5–6. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
^ "Division I Conference Champions Season-by-Season" (PDF). 2003 Women's Basketball Records Book. NCAA. p. 174. Note: From 1986–91, the conference operated as the New South Women's Athletic Conference before merging with the TAAC in 1992. Known as the Trans America Athletic Conference from 1992 to 2001
^ "2015–16 Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball Guide". Sun Belt Conference. pp. 70–73. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
^ "C-USA Standings - 2013-14". ESPN. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
^ "FIU" (PDF). 2015-16 Women's Basketball. Conference USA. 2015. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-16.

v t e Lamar Lady Cardinals head basketball coaches
Marilyn Krause (1969–1972) Pat Park (1972–1978) Cindy Russo (1978–1980) Iwana McGee (1980–1981) Pat Ramsey (1981–1984) Charlotte Mason (1984–1986) Al Barbre (1986–1991) Liz Galloway McQuitter (1991–1994) David McKey (1994–1998) Leonard Drake (2002–2007) Larry Tidwell (2007–2013) Robin Harmony (2013–2019) A'Quonesia Franklin (2019– )

v t e FIU Panthers women's basketball head coaches
Sue Uscier (1975–1976) Patty Abbott (1976–1977) Cindy Russo (1977–1978) Rick Jendra (1978–1979) Mary Ellen Fiske (1979–1980) Cindy Russo (1980–2015) Inge Nissen (2015) # Marlin Chinn (2015–2016) Tiara Malcom (2016–2020) Jesyka Burks-Wiley (2020– ) Pound sign (#) denotes interim head coach.