Shay Ciezki’s basketball journey started with gymnastics.
Her older brother by three years, Matthew, played basketball his entire life and went on to play at Division III Keuka College in upstate New York. When he was on the court growing up, Shay was often hanging on the sideline. Sometimes she’d dribble a ball, sometimes she’d just tumble around.
By age six, Shay started to play, herself. The Buffalo, N.Y. native eventually became a dangerous 3-point shooter at Penn State, before transferring to Indiana women’s basketball in April.
“He would go to clinics and camps, and I’d be there doing cartwheels and whatever, just following around. And then I pick up the ball, and the next thing you know, I’m starting to train and work out when I’m like six years old with him,” she told The Daily Hoosier in a phone interview. “I was just the little sister that followed him around in gyms, and that passion never went away.”
Shay played sports throughout her childhood, and later chose to stick with basketball over softball when she got to high school.
The guard is competitive, forged by all the time spent on the court with Matthew. They played in the driveway nearly every night as they grew up, at any time of day, and in any weather. Shay remembered turning on the headlights in their parents’ car so they could play 1-on-1 or P-I-G. Those games often got chippy, and the siblings were the same way as they got older and trained more seriously together.
“Even now, we work out together, he trains me when I come home, and it’s a pretty bloody fight, I would say. We get in a lot of fights, there’s elbows to the faces and a lot of crack talking,” Shay said. “But he’s been — my whole family has just been such a catalyst for me with my basketball journey. Their support means everything to me.”
Rapid success
Ciezki (pronounced Ches-key) didn’t need long to establish herself once she arrived at Penn State in 2022.
She started 29 games as a freshman, and after a slow start in her first college game — and her only game coming off the bench that year — she routinely performed well. Ciezki averaged 11.8 points, 2.5 assists, and 2.3 rebounds per game in that 2022-23 season, with impressive outside shooting prowess. The guard shot 41.6 percent from 3-point range, good for second in the Big Ten.
Ciezki credited the work she did before joining the Nittany Lions for allowing her to succeed so quickly. She worked on the court with boys players, including her brother — she said pitting herself against bigger and better players helped her make the rapid adjustment to the next level. She’d work out two or three times a day as she got closer to starting college.
But it went beyond the on-court work. Later in her high school career, Ciezki began developing better routines in the weight room and paying more attention to her nutrition, sleep, and mental focus. Those things can be bigger adjustments for some freshmen when they arrive at college, but because of that work in high school, Ciezki was more prepared for it.
“It’s tough. College ball is tough. You’ve got to be on your A-game every day. Especially with that mindfulness piece, I got a pretty good routine down my senior year, and I kind of just took that with me,” Ciezki said. “There’s so many aspects of the game that for me, my senior year, I just worked on every single one of them. And just kind of grew one percent better every day.”
Her numbers dipped as a sophomore, but not by much. Last season, Ciezki scored 11.5 points, dished 2.4 assists, and grabbed 2.1 rebounds per game. She was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention.
Ciezki’s 3-point percentage fell to 36.8, but that still ranked seventh in the conference. And it came at higher volume — she attempted 5.1 threes per game in 2022-23, and 5.7 per game last year.
She did improve at the free-throw line, going from 73 percent as a freshman to 90.2 percent as a sophomore — the latter percentage was higher than that of any IU player last year.
So while the 3-point shot may be Ciezki’s primary weapon, she brings more than that to Bloomington.
“I can get to the rim when I want to, I could get to that midrange, and I think the best part of my game is that I love to play-make. I love to find my teammates, I love to find open gaps where I can hit my post player or hit my shooter on the wing, I want to just be out there to make others better. I think that’s my main M.O. when I step out on the court, just make other people around me better.”
Ciezki played against IU twice with the Nittany Lions. The Hoosiers held her to six points on 3-of-11 shooting in a December 2022 meeting at Bryce Jordan Center. But she left more of a mark in her lone game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in January.
The guard shot 4 for 13, including a 2-for-5 mark from 3-point range, that night for 12 points, as Penn State put IU on upset alert. Ciezki banked in a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give PSU a five-point lead going into the locker room.
Ciezki fondly remembered the atmosphere in Bloomington, and said she’d never felt a rush like that before.
She had bigger games than that performance — against Central Connecticut State in December, the sophomore dropped 40 points, third-most in a single game in PSU history. Her eight 3-pointers that night tied for second in program history.
But between preparing to oppose her and seeing her performance around the league, IU head coach Teri Moren knew how good Ciezki can be.
“We have seen firsthand in the Big Ten how explosive Shay can be,” IU head coach Teri Moren said in a press release announcing Ciezki’s addition. “She is a great perimeter player with quickness to make plays off the bounce. Shay is going to be a great addition to our backcourt. Getting to know Shay and her family we know she will fit in well with our system and culture and look forward to getting her to Bloomington.”
Stepping in
Ciezki’s transfer portal recruitment ramped up instantaneously.
Schools began calling immediately after she entered the portal, and IU was one of the first programs to ring her. Ciezki liked what Moren said on the phone, and by the end of that conversation, they set up a visit for the following weekend, April 13-14.
Ciezki toured IU’s facilities, met the team, and even attended a Kane Brown concert at Memorial Stadium. She left Bloomington that weekend with a gut feeling. She couldn’t pinpoint one specific reason why, but on the plane after the visit, she turned to her mom and said, ‘This might be the place.’
“I think that was calling me right there in that moment to be like, ‘Here you go,’ kind of thing,” Ciezki said. “I think it was just the visit as a whole. They did a great job.”
Ciezki announced her commitment on April 25, picking IU over Michigan State and Syracuse.
The guard spoke with every player on the team — including recent alums Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia — when she visited campus. She said they were all sweet and welcoming, which helped draw her in.
But her conversation with Scalia, in particular, stuck out.
The two share an obvious connection as strong outside shooters. But they share more than that: as another player who transferred to Indiana from a different Big Ten school, Scalia’s advice held weight with Ciezki.
Ciezki asked Scalia about her experience at IU as a transfer, trying to gauge if it would be the right move for her. And Scalia gave a memorable answer.
“She told me, ‘Dude, I loved it here. It was such a good move for me. The team was great, coach Moren was great, the atmosphere.’ She was like, ‘You only get to play for Indiana once in your lifetime.’ And that kind of stuck with me,” Ciezki said. “I was like, ‘Whoa. Yeah, you’re right. It’s not every day you get to play in front of 10,000 fans.'”
Ciezki seems a likely candidate to slot into Indiana’s starting lineup next season, in Scalia’s departed slot.
The rising junior could form a dangerous backcourt with graduate students Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil. And while IU already had 3-point shooting returning with those two and Yarden Garzon, Ciezki’s addition returns Indiana to the lethal outside shooting team it was last season. The Hoosiers may not lead the nation in 3-point percentage again, but they now have the weaponry to finish among the best outside-shooting teams in the sport.
That potential is part of what excites Ciezki about playing with the Hoosiers, and why she saw herself as a fit with them. She saw what the staff did with Scalia last season, and thinks she has what it takes to step into a similar role.
“I think that was a big part of why I committed, just to see how she (Scalia) played, how she got the ball and where she shot it from, and Indiana’s a 3-point shooting team, there’s no doubt about that. Obviously, that’s right up my alley,” Ciezki said. “It was pretty remarkable what she did this past season. That goes to show the work she put in herself (and) the coaches put in with her. Even on my visit, I saw girls going to the gym and getting shots up. And it was a weekend. That really stuck out to me. I’m like, ‘These girls are always working, and I want to be a part of that.'”
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