Syracuse women’s basketball head coach Keith Cieplicki is not familiar with losing. In six seasons as the head coach at Vermont, he never experienced a losing season. But he knew when he took the job at Syracuse that things could get off to a rocky start. After all, the Orangewomen were coming off of a 10-18 season and returned only one senior, Julie McBride.

Halfway through Cieplicki’s first season coaching the Orangewomen, things are going as Cieplicki suspected. SU sits at 3-4 in the Big East and in the bottom half of the standings. Still, Cieplicki believes Syracuse can only improve from here.

He hopes that improvement begins Saturday when SU hosts No. 23 Virginia Tech at noon in Manley Field House. ‘Honestly, I don’t think I could be doing better,’ Cieplicki said. ‘It’s in the sense of trying to build what we came here to build. Obviously, if you want to talk about this season and wins and losses we could be doing better. But I think that it really is about moving in a direction and I think that we’re moving in the right direction. We knew it was going to be a process and would take patience.’

Cieplicki’s main problem thus far has been SU’s lack of offense. Since the only player Cieplicki has brought into the program is Lauren Kohn, he has been forced to work with what he was handed. That has led to a weak offense that consists mostly of 3-point shooting and McBride driving to the basket.

Junior center Chineze Nwagbo, who returned from last season’s knee surgery, has established herself as a consistent force inside, something for SU (6-11, 3-4 Big East) to look forward to next season.

The biggest change of the Cieplicki era so far has been the play of McBride. Used to pushing the ball for her first three years under Marianna Freeman, Cieplicki has forced McBride to slow down the tempo. This has led to a much more disciplined McBride, but has not limited her offensive abilities.

McBride, who said she has played a slowed-down, more-disciplined style before in AAU, has adjusted to the change. Though at times she has the urge to push the ball, McBride, like the rest of the Orangewomen, has bought in to the reasoning behind Cieplicki’s system.

‘The style we play is because we only have seven people,’ McBride said. ‘We really can’t run. We’ve got to score in the half-court. Yeah, I miss pushing it but I’m not frustrated at all that I can’t do it. Sometimes I smile at (Cieplicki) on the court because I’m about to push it and he’s looking at me like, ‘no.’ ‘

Cieplicki said that next season, when some of his personnel changes, the Orangemen will use a different style of play. That new personnel will include a recruiting class that has been rated No. 23 in the nation by the Blue Star Index.

For now, though, Cieplicki is concentrating on leading Syracuse to the Big East tournament in Hartford, Conn., and especially Tech (15-4, 4-4). The bottom two teams in the conferences don’t qualify, and with SU sitting in 10th place in the 14 team conference, the margin for error is small. Cieplicki believes the race for the final two spots will come down to a four-team battle between the Orangewomen, St. John’s, Pittsburgh and Providence. SU has already defeated Pitt and the Friars, but lost to St. John’s.

Cieplicki would especially like to reach the tournament to give McBride a fitting end to her career. She has only been to the NCAA tournament once, in 2001-02. McBride, though, says despite some of the frustrating times, she wishes she had one more season under Cieplicki to turn SU around. McBride, like many of her teammates, believes that it’s only a matter of time before Cieplicki has the Orangewomen at the top of the standings.

‘He’s got a lot of time here and it’s only his first year,’ Nwagbo said. ‘Sometimes you don’t see the progression but the progression is there. I know it’s going to come.’

Said Cieplicki: ‘This is (McBride’s) last go-around and she’s done so much for the program. You want to get there and see what happens. I’ve always believed that when you’re building up a program you always play for the older players, because they only have so many chances.’

Published on January 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm