In between his offseason duties as the Detroit Shock head coach and a color analyst with the Detroit Pistons, legendary ‘Bad Boy’ Bill Laimbeer took time out of his busy schedule to make a trip to Syracuse to see his daughter Keri play on Saturday.

But with the way the Orange performed in its 59-43 loss to Cincinnati, a matchup featuring two teams at the bottom of the Big East, he couldn’t have been impressed one bit.

Laimbeer is certainly aware of the team’s struggles. He has followed SU’s season by listening to the games on the Internet and he keeps in touch with his daughter. But this time, Laimbeer saw firsthand just how poorly Syracuse can play. He also took time to see the team practice Friday, visited the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where Keri hopes she can study broadcast journalism and spent time catching up with her at Scotch & Sirloin later that evening.

Laimbeer rarely experienced such failure when he helped the Pistons win two NBA championships in 1989 and 1990 and coached the Shock to a WNBA title in his first season in 2003. He sympathizes and is mindful, though, of the struggles SU has been experiencing.

‘You have the tendency to get your head down a little bit,’ Laimbeer said. ‘She knows where they’re at and how they’re doing right now. She wants to change it. But no one person can change it. It has to be a collective thing. I keep telling her task is to make sure everybody keeps their head up. Keep working hard, and it’ll turn around one day.’

Keri played a limited role Saturday, first coming off the bench with 15:52 left in the first half. She played several minutes at a time for 11 total. Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki and Bill Laimbeer lauded Keri’s eagerness to find other players open and involve them in the game.

‘Feeding them their egos,’ father Bill called it.

Keri prefers playing behind the scenes and creating plays, whether with a pass or a screen. On Saturday, her efforts failed to create scoring opportunities for others. She also left with 5:49 left in the game to ice up her aching back.

‘I’m not frustrated at all,’ Keri said. ‘I know I’m a freshman. I have a lot to learn, and I have a lot of work to put in. I’m perfectly happy with my situation. I just want to keep getting better.’

As someone who hates to lose like her father, Keri is taking the Orange’s 7-11 record and 0-7 performance in the Big East rather well. Picking up that competitive fire from her dad, it just makes her want to keep plugging away. That competitive juice interested her in basketball in the first place.

Concluding Keri simply followed her dad’s footsteps is too simple. Initially, Keri swam and played softball. But in fourth grade, she switched from the swimming lanes and the mound to the hardwood.

Keri vividly remembers what made her end her softball career. Pitching that day, her softball coach conducted warmups with her beforehand. The first ball he threw tipped off Keri’s glove and smacked her in the face. Keri’s coach grounded the second ball and the ball bounced into her knee.

‘My mom wasn’t too happy with the coach the rest of the day,’ Keri laughed.

Keri was always exposed to her dad’s success in the NBA. She watched old tapes of his playing days with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Dennis Rodman. She became used to people seeking autographs from her father anywhere they went. But Bill Laimbeer never forced or pressured her to play basketball. It just eventually came to her.

After a successful AAU run under her dad’s direction, Keri gained interest from Syracuse, Cincinnati and Texas Christian while playing for Detroit Country Day. During that time, Bill Laimbeer adopted a similar hands-off approach. Coaches were recruiting Keri, not Bill. The coaches didn’t want the father to have more attention than the recruit. They didn’t want to have to deal with large crowds anytime Keri visited a campus. Keri also wanted coaches to give her an assessment based on her skills, not because of her dad.

‘It’s not their spot,’ Laimbeer said, comparing her parents to those who become overly involved in their children’s future. ‘It’s not their place. The kid is choosing the life of where they want to be. We stayed completely out of it.’

As a former high school coach, Bill Laimbeer knows how aggravating it can be when parents become another concern.

‘Here’s the reality,’ Cieplicki said, ‘if Keri’s parents weren’t who they were and they were a pain in the rear, Keri probably wouldn’t be here. We don’t want families like that, quite frankly. This job is hard enough, complicated enough, where we don’t need that kind of influence on the team.’

‘She’s a hard worker,’ freshman Brittany Smith said. ‘It’s definitely hard to battle her in practice. She brings a lot to the team. When she shows what she can do, she’ll be a good player.’

Published on January 22, 2006 at 12:00 pm