Newcomer Notebook: Cydnee Kinslow

CYDNEE KINSLOW
6'2 | Forward | Oakley, Calif. | Long Beach State University 

On Spending Time in Hawaii at the Onset of the Pandemic

KINSLOW: “Some of my best friends actually played at University of Hawaii and we had all been together at the conference tournament (Big West Conference) in California and it got cancelled. After they got home, they were like ‘if you’re not doing anything just come over here’. And at the time, you know California was just a few days from being on lock down. So I packed two suit cases and then it was history. I was supposed to go there for two weeks and then I ended up staying there for seven months. It kind of happened like that. At the time, I didn’t know where my basketball career was going to take me or whether or not I was going to play my last year or not so it was big time to be around people so like minded and who played the sport I did at the same level. They pushed me to be a better player. I learned a lot of new things, picked some other people’s brains and to see a different culture, that was priceless for me. I got to experience people, experience things and got to see a whole different side of life.”  

On Her Key Takeaways from COVID-19

KINSLOW: “I think for a lot of student-athletes during that time, it was the first time we had been home for that significant of amount of time. To be able to be around our families and our friends was great. You know there wasn’t a lot of things for us to do, you know I’m from California so it was on lockdown. It wasn’t like we could be out and about. It was nice to be in the house and go for a walk with my nieces and nephews or to just be outside, that kind of stuff is priceless. I can’t pay for that during any kind of vacation time so to be able to take that away from this is huge."

On Her Siblings

KINSLOW:  “I am the middle child, the best one, but it’s fine. I have an older siste,r she’s 27 she has two children and one on the way. I have a younger sister, she is 17. She’s going to be the next collegiate basketball player so I’m excited for her. I’m bummed that I’ll be missing her by a year to be playing at the same time. I’m the middle kid and the first to go college. I’ve been to a few schools and I think I’m finally at the one that I’m happy to end at.”

Image courtesy of UNC Athletics

On the Other Sports She Played Growing Up

KINSLOW:  “I just wanted to play basketball since I was a little tike. You know growing up playing on the plastic little hoops since I was four or five. And then I just kind of started playing throughout the years and when I got to high school I was involved in a little bit of everything. I was a big leadership kid, I wanted to do all the extra-curricular activities I could get into. I tried to impact the community the best way I could, I also played volleyball for 3-4 years which was also fun. That helped with my footwork a lot, believe it or not, I really saw it carry over. I also just love being part of a team so it was nice to just be a part of a different aspect and different type of team. I liked that, but it’s mainly been basketball the whole time.”

On What She Was Looking in her Final Stop in College Hoops

KINSLOW: “I think there’s always a hard topic of conversation and a lot of people forget that as athletes we are humans and we struggle. We push our bodies to limits that most people would never think they would see both mentally and physically. I think during my journey my biggest takeaway has been my mental health. I’ve had times where I’ve struggled big time and you know I am a big advocate when it comes to mental health for student-athletes. That was probably my biggest thing was finding a coaching staff that knew my journey up until this point and knew where I struggled and knew how hard it was for me and that they wanted to protect me in that aspect. That was something Cam and Kelly stressed to me so much when I was being recruited. They valued me as a person regardless of how I performed on the floor. Not every program is like that. A lot of programs are like, ‘if you’re not performing, sorry it’s not your day today'. I think that’s really hard on the athletes and puts a lot of pressure on us. He repeats it daily and I really love that. Let’s say today I’m not hitting shots, that doesn’t make me any less of a person. As soon as I had that conversation with them (the staff) on the phone, it was like I know exactly where I am supposed to go. Obviously getting an education from here, you can’t beat it, so that was obviously something I was more than willing to come here and do. You know I had quite a few options but from the jump I kind of knew that Florida was where I was planning to come. I wanted to be a Gator and was more than blessed to have that kind of stuff fall in line for me.” 

On the Role She Hopes to Play on this Team

KINSLOW: “I’ve been a part of a lot of different programs and I know the kind of player I am. Obviously I work every day to be a better player and to bring a lot to the team. I love being a role player. That’s kind of what I think I bring. I’m a culture kid, I love people in general. I like to be one of those people that brings my teammates together and hang out all the time outside of the court. I love that aspect of it because I think the better we mesh together off the floor, the better we mesh together on the floor. With this new wave of kids coming in, I’ve actually never been a part of a program that is so competitive with one another. We are so good about pushing one another.

I’m going to offensively rebound, I’m going to defensively rebound. I’m going to play defense because I’m trying to give my teammates everything that I possibly can. I’m going to hit shots when I’m open. That’s the biggest thing for me, I am an unselfish player and I love to see my teammates get theirs. I believe what you give to the world you get back.  What I give to them, I think they’re going to look for me and when my time is called I’m going to do everything I can.” 

On Her Master's Course at UF

KINSLOW: “I’m doing social media management. It’s kind of dealing with branding for companies and their social media aspects. Doing all the behind the scenes stuff with that. It’s a huge passion of mine. As an athlete we are always really involved with social media and knowing how to use our platform in different ways. Seeing how to impact this aspect is something I can take away in dealing with different companies. I love that and love how the whole world operates around social media now. For most companies and businesses, you know if you don’t have a social media platform, you’re generally missing out on a huge portion of business and revenue. I got my undergraduate degree in business so you know that’s something that I am super interested in in bringing that full circle for me.” 

Kinslow began her collegiate career at Pepperdine before transferring to Illinois, and ultimately Long Beach State for her final two seasons. (Photos courtesy of Long Beach State)

On What She's Looking Forward to the Most This Season

Favorite NBA Team

“I’m a Warriors fan but I always support the Lakers too.”

Favorite Food

“I’m the team foodie. I can eat and I don’t have a preference for anything. I never say no when the girls are like ‘hey let’s go eat’. Probably my favorite is seafood. I love seafood.” 

Least Favorite Food

“Mushrooms, that’s the only one that I look at and just scoot to the side.”

Game Day Superstitions 

“I wouldn’t say I have superstitions. I would say the more light hearted I am before a game, the better I feel and the better I play. Some people have to sit in a corner and mentally get in the zone, to each person their own, but for me personally I love to come in and play a lot of loud music with my teammates. Dance around and get myself hyped. I prepared for this, Cam has prepared us for this, we’ve done thousands of reps of what were going to do today. This is the fun stuff. The practice stuff is the hard stuff and what we are about to do is the fun stuff and that’s how I go into it.

You’ll see this year on the bench, I’m going to be a huge hype man. On the floor I’m a huge hype man, I think the better energy I give to my teammates the better we are going to play.”  

On Who Would Play Her in a Movie About Her Life

“Wow okay, honestly I like Cameron Diaz. I just watched Bad Teacher the other night and we have very similar humor. She kind of comes off the top of her head. I definitely like her, she’s more of the dry humor that I have.”

On Her Favorite Hobby off the Court

“Not much here yet, but when I was in Hawaii I surfed every day. Every morning and every night and I know that’s a strange hobby but being from California too, we do those kind of things on the weekends.”