BLOOMINGTON — Shay Ciezki had a nightly ritual back in April as she narrowed her choices in the transfer portal.
She would pull up Indiana women’s basketball games on YouTube and watch them with her family.
While she was familiar with the Hoosiers from having played them twice during her time at Penn State, Ciezki wanted to take a deeper dive into the program before locking in her decision.
“I think I watched four or five full games,” Ciezki said, at IU’s media day. “I watched them almost every night to see where I would fit and just breakdown their entire offense and defense.”
Ciezki, who was also considering Syracuse and Michigan State, clicked on everything from the Hoosiers’ series of battles against Iowa to their NCAA tournament losses to South Carolina and Miami. She rewatched IU’s wins over Penn State and watched their recent games against the Spartans to see how the teams stacked up against each other.
That research was the final piece of the puzzle for Ciezki.
She verbally committed to Indiana on April 25 after less than three weeks in the portal and was the key offseason addition for the Hoosiers.
More: Indiana women’s basketball aiming for perfection at home in 2024-25: ‘Protect Assembly’
Indiana women’s basketball coach Teri Moren: “Everyone wants a shooter, right?”
Moren was on the lookout for a shooter in the transfer portal with Sara Scalia graduating.
Scalia, a former Minnesota transfer, left some big shoes to fill after setting a new-single season IU record in 2023-24 with 103 three-pointers (3.2 per game). Her 3-point shooting percentage (42.7%) ranked 12th in the country last year.
The Hoosiers made Ciezki their top target.
She had an impressive resume going back to her time at St. Mary’s High School in New York. The three-time captain led the school to a Class A state title as a senior and set a long list of program records including most career points (2,138) and 3-pointers made (244).
Ciezki had an instant impact at Penn State in 2022-23 as one of only two Division 1 freshmen who shot over 40% from 3-point range while averaging more than two made 3-pointers (2.1) per game.
In two seasons for PSU, she made 138 3-pointers and shot 38.9% from long distance. She was also the team’s second-leading scorer during that stretch.
Indiana faced plenty of competition on the recruiting trail for Ciezki, but Moren said her staff made it “really hard for her to say no.”
Ciezki’s conversations with IU assistant coach Ali Patberg, who had success in Bloomington as a Notre Dame transfer, and Scalia helped reel her in. Scalia, who also joined the Hoosiers as a transfer, spoke with Ciezki on her official visit.
“Sara is a great player,” Ciezki said. “I had the privilege to meet her and talk to her about transferring here and how she said it changed her life and was so grateful to be a part of this team.”
More: Indiana women’s basketball: Why Chloe Moore-McNeil’s teammates want her to take a bow
Ciezki’s making herself at home at team’s practice facility
The other memorable moment for Ciezki on that visit was seeing a large group of players working out at the team’s practice facility on their own.
It’s exactly how Ciezki spends her down time with a training regimen that includes making five hundred outside shots a day.
“I wanted to be around like-minded people,” Ciezki said. “That’s exactly what is here. These people are in the gym constantly.”
Moren seeks out highly competitive players on the recruiting trail or as she put it at IU’s media days — players who are comfortable ”doing more than than what’s required will always be a piece of the recipe.”
“She was looking for that,” Moren said, of Ciezki. “She was searching for a place where being in a gym was, not just going to be her, right? She was going to have other teammates that were going to be in there with her and training.”
Moren said Ciezki has made a “seamless transition” into the program and gushed over what she brings to the team, both on the floor and off it as the team prepares for its season-opener against Brown on Nov. 4 at Assembly Hall.
“She’s a communicator, she’s mature, she’s all the things that you want,” Moren said. “I think she’s just going to add to the leadership that’s already in the locker room, because I think she has a lot of miles on her legs in terms of the experience. She’s been great.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU women’s basketball: Shay Ciezki brings winning mindset to Bloomington
