June 26 – Amanda Adamson doesn’t want to come across as bitter or critical.

The former SU guard doesn’t want to be seen as a disgruntled player trashing former head coach Keith Cieplicki, a common theme throughout Cieplicki’s tenure. With her decision to transfer to New Mexico this year, Adamson will be the sixth player to leave the SU program since the spring of 2004.

Adamson has criticisms of Cieplicki, no doubt. She and her mother, Marie Adamson, felt his tactics didn’t allow Amanda to fully develop as a player. But it’s not personal. She credited Cieplicki for helping her choose a possible career path in elementary education and always admired his strong relationship with his family.

Adamson’s decision to leave – requested for in early May, approved on June 1 but not reported until a Daily Orange article on June 7 – is much different than the rest of the players who transferred.

Marchelle Campbell, Tierra Jackson and April Jean accused Cieplicki of threatening scholarships, making racially insensitive remarks and acting disrespectfully toward players and administrative staff in the spring of 2004, claims Cieplicki and former athletic director Jake Crouthamel denied. But Adamson’s dissatisfaction stayed on the court.

‘I wanted to be on a successful team,’ said Adamson, who will be a junior. ‘Winning two games in the Big East is not successful to me. I’ve grown up on successful teams so that was a hard adjustment for me. I wasn’t ready to keep losing.’

When Adamson went through the recruiting process at Heritage Hill High School in Littleton, Colo., she actually narrowed her choices to New Mexico and Syracuse. The thought of an upcoming program in a prestigious conference like the Big East appealed to Adamson, and she wanted to be a part of the beginning stage.

But that plan never worked. During Adamson’s two years at Syracuse under Cieplicki, SU went a combined 22-34. The player New Mexico head coach Don Flanagan saw at Heritage Hill – continuously draining 3’s and jump shots in clutch moments – was non-existent with the Orange.

Adamson hopes she’ll play an instrumental role for the Lobos, although she’ll sit out next season due to transfer rules. New Mexico finished last season with a 22-10 record, an 11-5 mark in the Mountain West Conference, a Top 25 ranking and a second-round appearance in the NCAA tournament as a No. 12 seed.

She talks with enthusiasm about Flanagan and the reputation he has for developing and encouraging shooters to do what they’re trained to do – shoot.

Flanagan said he hasn’t watched film of Adamson’s performances at SU. But when she contacted him in May expressing interest in the program, Flanagan remembered her days in high school enough for him to act.

But first he had to make a phone call to Syracuse and make sure of one thing.

‘With her the main thing was, was there an attitude problem or was there an effort problem?’ Flanagan said. ‘They told me there wasn’t. They wanted her to stay but as long as there wasn’t an attitude or effort problem, we wanted her.’

‘I was proud of how she handled it,’ added Quentin Hillsman, who Daryl Gross, SU’s Director of Athletics, named as the interim-head coach for Syracuse after Cieplicki resigned on June 6. ‘It’s tough to leave a place no matter what the terms are. She handled it like a lady. She was very classy. I thought it was good in that she understood it may not be the best place for you (here) but at least you know we care about you.’

Cieplicki declined to be interviewed for this story.

Adamson’s teammates showed they cared about her. Marie Adamson recalls that the moment her teammates realized she was transferring, they called Amanda to convince her otherwise.

‘If she wasn’t happy up here in Syracuse, she has a chance to go somewhere else,’ SU junior center Vaida Sipaviciute said in an e-mail to The Daily Orange. ‘Whatever makes her happy makes me happy, too. But I will definitely miss her.’

The possibility of transferring has been a back-and-forth debate swirling in Adamson’s mind. She admitted that the mere thought of it first occurred at the end of her freshman season.

Starting 13 of 27 games her freshman year, Adamson averaged 4.3 points a game and played a limited role – a stark contrast to the 13 points she contributed a game as a senior at Heritage Hill, a team that compiled a 56-15 record and trips to the state championship game, semifinals and quarterfinals during Amanda’s four years.

But she didn’t want to act on raw emotion. Amanda said the minutes she earned her freshman year were satisfying, especially with signs that the program seemed to be on the rise with SU’s 65-58 win in the first round of the Big East Tournament against sixth-seeded Georgetown in 2005.

But she had personal issues that bothered her. Maybe the following year she would perform more consistently now that she went through the ropes that freshman inevitably experience, Amanda thought.

Maybe next season Cieplicki would better define her role. Six games into her freshman season, Cieplicki started Adamson for the next six games. But then he drastically reduced her minutes later for unknown reasons.

In some instances, Adamson flourished. In her first start against Albany on Dec. 7, 2004, Adamson scored 14 points in 28 minutes. She scored in double figures in two other starts.

After posting 10 points and leading Syracuse in playing time with 40 minutes against Notre Dame on Jan. 5, 2005, she only played 13 minutes the next game against Providence a week later. She scored only two points.

In the Big East Tournament, Adamson played 12 minutes against Georgetown and scored zero points. In the next round against Connecticut, she played 23 minutes and scored 13 points.

An inconsistency of expectations linked to inconsistent performances.

‘She couldn’t be as successful as she wanted to be,’ Marie Adamson said. ‘She wanted her team to be successful but she felt like the way she was going she couldn’t really help. She wanted to help but she felt like there were mixed messages from the coaching staff.’

Adamson said she forced herself not to think about transferring during the season and that a decision was never set until this May. It would only be a distraction. But things didn’t improve her sophomore year. Freshman guards Jenny Eckhart and Cintia Johnson and transfer Ashley McMillen joined the Orange in 2005-06, causing Cieplicki to drop Adamson on the depth chart.

Adamson started in two of her 25 game appearances, although her time increased once McMillen tore her meniscus. The role was still limited, though, and Adamson averaged 2.8 points.

It seemed Cieplicki wanted a lesser role from Adamson her sophomore year, who never eclipsed more than 23 minutes. Adamson’s .293 shooting percentage didn’t help. But Cieplicki’s signals were still inconsistent.

When Adamson brought the ball up the court, Adamson often stared at the ground. Adamson looked like a player wanting to express being someone else – a different player – but holding it back.

Marie Adamson is amused by Amanda’s habits to organize her clothes by season and that she arranged her apartment with matching colors. But it reflects Adamson’s personality, wanting everything set in place so she knows where they are and knows what to expect.

Marie and Amanda Adamson said Flanagan’s style matches her personality better. Flanagan has his team follow a routine of reviewing film, digesting scouting reports, having team dinners and working out at the opposing team’s court before an away game. At SU, Adamson said Cieplicki didn’t set up such a consistency.

‘In the beginning I went in with the attitude to be ready to go in at anytime, be ready to score, and do this and do that,’ Adamson said. ‘Then that was hard because I didn’t play a lot. I thought chances are I’m not going to play. It may not be the right way to go but how am I supposed to be if I don’t know whether I go in or not.?’

Although Adamson doesn’t dispute she wanted more playing time, her issue is too complicated to label her as a selfish player who wanted more minutes. It would misrepresent what Amanda is because, if anything, she’s one of the most unselfish players on the team.

‘It was very frustrating for her,’ SU sophomore forward Keri Laimbeer said. ‘Amanda is one of the hardest workers on the team. She stayed in the gym later and came in early. She was always trying to get people to do extra work. She’s not used to things falling her way because she worked so hard.’

Teammate Jill Norton laughed when she told the story about Adamson constantly calling teammates to arrange pick-up games at Archbold Gym even during midterms and finals week.

She lifted weights everyday to build strength. She showed up to the gym an hour early and took 300 shots a day.

But Adamson’s work ethic could not overcome unsuccessful performances, which points more to the road blocks Cieplicki created, intentional or not, than it does to the numbers she posted. In February, Cieplicki offered a clear-cut solution to combat Adamson’s shooting woes – to shoot more.

‘I’m not going to tell anybody not to shoot the ball,’ Cieplicki told The Daily Orange in February. ‘That’s never going to be a problem for me. I think that gives the players more confidence than anything else.’

Cieplicki’s solution never worked. And, at least in Adamson’s case, Cieplicki’s plea for her to shoot more did little to increase her confidence.

‘I felt like I couldn’t make any mistakes out there,’ Adamson said. ‘It was limiting for me because I was so concerned with not messing up because I knew if I messed up, I would come out of the game.’

Adamson was stuck in a lose-lose situation. She could shoot more shots. But if they didn’t fall in, she would likely lose even more playing time. Or Adamson could decide not to shoot at all, causing Cieplicki to bench her for not following orders.

In SU’s last regular season game this year against DePaul, Adamson shot 3-of-11 but scored a season-high nine points. In that game Norton noticed a different attitude on the floor. Adamson didn’t hesitate to shoot, even when unsuccessful.

‘You could tell she didn’t care if she missed because she knew it would eventually go in,’ Norton recalled. ‘Her body language was much different. Before, you could see she was frustrated. There was hesitation. In other games she didn’t catch and shoot. She paused a little bit, looked at the basket and thought, ‘Should I shoot?”

For unknown reasons, Cieplicki, a former shooting guard at Vermont, also altered Amanda’s shooting form. John Adamson, Amanda’s father and a former player at Florida, instructed his daughter growing up to shoot straight up. Amanda describes the form similar to shooting out of a telephone booth. Cieplicki differed, wanting her to shoot off the basket.

Adamson agreed with her father’s advice because she felt it helped improve her arc. But she didn’t want to disobey the head coach. With the way Cieplicki wanted her to shoot, Adamson had to shed her old habits.

Attempts for John Adamson to comment were unsuccessful.

Although wary of the details, Eckhart said she was aware Cieplicki wanted to change Amanda’s form. Cieplicki never tinkered with Eckhart’s form, although she said he helped further develop her foot work.

From a shooter’s perspective, though, Eckhart understood what Adamson was experiencing.

‘I would be completely frustrated,’ Eckhart said. ‘You grow up, become successful and learn the way you’ve always done it. To change (forms) and not be good at it right away is frustrating. You want to please (the coaching staff) and do what it takes to make the shot.’

Hillsman neither confirmed nor denied any of Adamson’s situations. Instead, Hillsman delegated last season’s coaching decisions and coaching philosophy matters for Cieplicki to answer.

Hillsman acknowledged Adamson’s frustration and lack of confidence. As an assistant coach last year, Hillsman worked with the guards in individual workouts. During those sessions, he saw Adamson’s potential, backed by endless hard work with a positive attitude.

‘I always thought Amanda needed someone to tell her she can play,’ Hillsman said. ‘With me being honest and a straight shooter, I really believed she could. It was a position that the kid worked hard at.’

It was Cieplicki, though, who determined the playing time. Adamson admits she wasn’t completely forthcoming regarding her concerns to Cieplicki. Given that he didn’t create an atmosphere to promote such discussions, it’s hard to blame Adamson.

‘To a small point there was somewhat of a discussion,’ she said. ‘It was probably not as much as I could’ve said. There’s always that ‘talking to your head coach feeling.”

Players have labeled Hillsman as more of a player-coach than Cieplicki, and Hillsman agrees with that assessment. Considering Adamson transferred before Cieplicki stepped down, would Adamson have stayed if she knew Hillsman would be the head coach next year?

Marie Adamson said that situation makes the issue more complicated because there is a possibility that Hillsman will only be a head coach for one season, meaning Amanda would play for three different coaches at Syracuse. Adamson didn’t speculate on the scenario and, instead, said she knows New Mexico is right for her and ‘everything happens for a reason.’

‘As far as what I wanted to get out of basketball, it’s just a winning team,’ Adamson said. ‘As an individual player, I want to continue to get better up until I’m done playing basketball. You never know how long your career is going to last but I want to continue that and keep improving on my skills. Also, I don’t even know if it’s feasible but I want to at least have the opportunity to play overseas or in the WNBA.’

Published on August 7, 2006 at 12:00 pm