All season long, Syracuse women’s basketball head coach Keith Cieplicki has stressed the importance of the Orangewomen slowing down the tempo of games. While facing running teams such as Rutgers and Notre Dame, Cieplicki has tried to force teams to play to SU’s tempo.

Throughout the season the Orangewomen have done so with limited success. Come tonight, for one of the first times all year, Syracuse won’t have to worry about slowing the pace. For once, their opponent, the Villanova Wildcats, will slow the pace for them.

Syracuse and No. 23 Villanova will square off tonight at 7:30 at The Pavilion in Villanova, Pa.

‘I don’t know if it’s an advantage,’ Villanova head coach Harry Perretta said of the team’s similar styles of play. ‘It’s what we’re used to seeing in practice. We approach it like we approach ourselves.’

Along with forcing his team to slow down the pace of the game, Perretta also has an unusual in-game coaching style. While four of the five Wildcats (13-4, 3-3 Big East) players head down court and set up the offense, Villanova’s point guard stays in the backcourt for several seconds. Perretta then barks exact instructions for the next offensive play. This often takes up to 10 seconds off the 30-second play clock.

As unusual as the style may sound, Cieplicki has used a similar approach of late. Realizing that his team can’t get into high-scoring, fast-paced shootouts, Cieplicki has enforced slowing down the pace of games. At times, Cieplicki has also shouted out exact instructions to point guard Julie McBride when bringing up the ball. On some plays, he also tells the other four Orangewomen (6-10, 3-3) where they should screen or cut for the play to work.

‘We use that style because we feel like we want to control the pace of the game,’ Perretta said. ‘A lot of people don’t use it because of the 30-second clock, and people think you have to run to be effective.’

The effectiveness of slowing the game down is debatable, as both teams rank toward the bottom of the Big East in offense. Villanova is 12th at 60 points per game, and the Orangewomen are last at 56 points per game. The Wildcats, though, lead the league in team defense, while Syracuse ranks toward the bottom of that category, too, at 11th.

Both Syracuse and Villanova have relied heavily on the 3-point shot. When the Orangewomen faced West Virginia, which is another team that relies heavily on the 3, on Saturday, Syracuse struggled defending the shot. The difference between the Mountaineers and Wildcats is that like the Orangewomen, Villanova struggles to hit its shot.

Cieplicki has repeatedly said that SU must hold its opponents to fewer than 60 points to win. With the Wildcats also struggling to score, this may be possible. The Orangewomen have not won a game when they have allowed more than 60 points.

With Villanova coming in having lost two of three, tonight may be one of the best chances Syracuse has to tally a win given its remaining schedule. Only two teams – Georgetown and Seton Hall – that are left on SU’s schedule reside behind the ninth-place Orangewomen in the Big East standings.

‘We just need to compete,’ Cieplicki said. ‘That’s the biggest thing now. We want to go down there and really fight and challenge. We want to get out to a good start and try to break out of having to come back.’

Published on January 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm