Maybe the lowest point came when three parents publicly voiced their displeasure over his coaching style.

Or maybe it was the suspensions of four players for violating team academic policy. Or perhaps it came when two of those players quit the team in the midst of the season and a third left at the end because they didn’t want to play for him.

It easily could have been the bickering between players. Or, simply, it could have been the losing – 21 games overall – and a 13-game losing streak to conclude the season.

There were plenty of low points to choose from in Keith Cieplicki’s inaugural campaign at the helm of the Syracuse women’s basketball team.

Yet Cieplicki hasn’t run back to Vermont. He’s back again, preaching his system and attempting to build Syracuse into a winner.

If Cieplicki’s first season at Syracuse didn’t scare him, it doesn’t seem like anything ever will. ‘I think everybody, staff and players, feel more comfortable this year,’ Cieplicki said. ‘We have a better idea on how things work day-to-day. The players have a pretty good feel of what our expectations are, so it has just been so much easier. We have been able to just focus on basketball and getting some things done on the floor.’

It wasn’t easy to accomplish basketball tasks last season when there were so many obstacles off the court to deal with.

Last December, Cieplicki suspended four players for violating his own team academic policy. April Jean and Tierra Jackson never returned to the team. Marchelle Campbell and Tracy Harbut did, but both played sparingly.

Campbell chose to leave the team at the end of the year and is now playing for a community college in Kansas City. Jackson enrolled at Towson, where she’s on the women’s basketball squad, while Jean is finishing up her senior year at Syracuse.

Jill Norton also told The Daily Orange in April that she was leaving the team and transferring, but over the summer changed her mind and is practicing with the team.

But why such a drastic turnover in just one year?

Some speculated that Cieplicki was trying to push players off the team that didn’t fit his system. Other players simply didn’t want to play for him, having been recruited by former SU coach Marianna Freeman, who coached with a much different philosophy.

Boston College women’s basketball head coach Cathy Inglese, who has known Cieplicki since the mid-1980s when Inglese was head coach at Vermont and Cieplicki was her assistant, said personnel issues are always difficult at the beginning of the rebuilding process.

Inglese said sometimes players don’t mesh well with a new system. A lot of times players feel that their playing time will decrease because they weren’t recruited by the new coach, but Inglese called that a ‘cop-out.’

‘I never want to hear, ‘I wasn’t recruited by so-and-so.’ You’re my player, too,’ Inglese said. ‘I don’t care if you came from the moon.’

Inglese built Vermont and Boston College from losers into contenders. She anticipates Cieplicki will do the same with Syracuse, though nobody is expecting a winning season quite yet. Another sub-10 win season is likely.

Inglese feels leadership on the team during those transition years between coaches is critical. The BC coach said you need a leader who buys into the system and makes the transition well for the entire team. If that doesn’t happen, sometimes players leave, like in Syracuse’s case.

‘I don’t care how good your team is. If you don’t have leadership, you’re not going to succeed,’ Inglese said. ‘You need leaders on a team, not only on the floor, but in the locker room and in the back of the bus.’

What happened with Syracuse was problems developed between certain players on the team, senior forward Sarah Wegrzynowicz said. When the four players were suspended, though, the seven remaining players bonded after a long road trip to Colorado.

‘There were definitely some rifts,’ Wegrzynowicz said. ‘But the seven that were leftover only brought us together. We understood and grew. We said: ‘This was it. We’ve got to make the best out of it.’

‘This year we’ve come in with a lot of good camaraderie and we’re ready to go.’

Wegrzynowicz said there are no attitudes on the team this year and they don’t have to tip-toe around any one player’s mindset like last year.

‘Last year, you knew somebody wasn’t happy and you didn’t want to be up around them,’ Wegrzynowicz said. ‘It was kind of a touchy situation. But once those were all excluded, we were fine.’

‘If (the players) are great kids and they understand and they realize what (Cieplicki’s) teaching makes sense, it’ll work,’ Inglese said. ‘What’s hard is when don’t understand that. He really had to deal with some issues last year.

‘It might be better, though. Sometimes it’s addition by subtraction.’

Cieplicki not only hopes it’s addition by subtraction (minus Jean, Jackson and Campbell), but also addition by recruiting. Syracuse adds five freshmen, all of whom are expected to make an immediate impact. The class was ranked No. 24 by the Blue Star Index, and despite SU’s troubles last season, the freshmen are still excited to play at Syracuse.

‘It’s more of a positive thing,’ freshman guard Jessica Richter said. ‘It can only go up. We’re only going to get better and improve.’

‘A key factor why I came here was (Cieplicki) said he wanted to rebuild the team,’ freshman forward Sara Antolick said. ‘I wanted to help do that.’

The returning players have also helped the freshmen understand what to expect of Cieplicki’s demanding style of play and hands-on practices.

Wegrzynowicz said that if the team is doing a one-on-one drill and a player wins but the ball rolls off the court, Cieplicki gets mad if the player isn’t hustling after it. He always wants tough, physical play out of his players. If not, they’ll find themselves on the bench next to him.

‘As soon as you step on the floor, he wants you to be 100 percent there,’ Wegrzynowicz said. ‘He wants a competitor.’

‘Coach is very clear about what he wants, and it’s not hard,’ sophomore Lauren Kohn said. ‘Everyone pretty much understands where our program is heading and what we want to accomplish. It’s just a matter of time.’

While nobody will confuse Syracuse with Connecticut in the Big East – or for that matter, Notre Dame, West Virginia or Boston College – the Orange is hopeful for a step in the right direction.

After last season’s tumultuous beginning, middle and end, anything will constitute that step – even if it doesn’t come in wins.

‘(Cieplicki’s) got a lot of freshmen. Maybe he’s got to take some lumps now for the future,’ Inglese said. ‘Your goal has to be long-range. You can feel good about short-term goals, but don’t feel down about yourself when things don’t go your way. Stick with it.’

Cieplicki has already done that.

Published on November 8, 2004 at 12:00 pm