Editor's note: Ball State's Tamara Bowie, last season's Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.

Dec. 3, 2001

Greetings once again! This past week was an interesting one. We experienced both extremes on the court -- a 94-50 victory over IPFW last Tuesday and then a 103-69 loss at No. 1 Connecticut. Both games taught us a lot about ourselves. Playing IPFW, we learned that we could be a very good team, but then UConn also showed us we have a long way to go.

	Tamara Bowie averaged 18.6 points and 8.4 rebounds as a sophomore in 2000-01.

The game against IPFW was a good game for me and my teammates. I scored my 1000th career point late in the game to become one of 12 Ball State players to do ever do that. It's a good feeling to be included on that list, but I am more concerned with our team's success. I can't deny the excitement of maybe breaking the all-time scoring record at Ball State, currently held by Emma Jones with 1,513 points.

Husky hype
Last week we were excited about travelling to No. 1 Connecticut. For us to be able to play against people and a program that we have watched for so long was great. In a way, it's what everyone dreams about and we finally had our chance.

We started the game against UConn real well, but you could see fatigue set in late in the game. We only had eight players for the game and we each played a lot of minutes. The game was just fun, there is no other way to explain it. I had never played in front of a crowd like that and the atmosphere felt like we were playing in March instead of November.

We are disappointed with the loss, but we are grateful for the experience. For at least half the game, we competed and stayed with the No. 1 team in the nation, so despite the loss, we gained confidence and determination to be even a better team.

Bad landing
Getting to Connecticut was a little tough. When we arrived at the airport Thursday, it was very chaotic. Our first flight, which left at 7 p.m., had been switched so we had to rush to make an earlier flight. Can you imagine a basketball team getting through check-in and security in less than 20 minutes? I was luckily picked to have my bag hand-checked by security! It's nice to see all of your personal belongings spread out on a table in front of everyone!

The flight from Indianapolis to Philadelphia was smooth, but we ended up in a holding pattern for an extra 45 minutes before we could land. So the flight was nearly twice as long as it should have been. The second flight to Hartford was also a smooth trip, except for the landing. When we were about to land, there was another plane still on the runway. Just as we almost touched down, we took back off and had to circle around and try again. Good thing I was sleeping again through most of that!

Having fun at the Hall
Before our game with UConn, we visited the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. It was neat to see all the history of the game I love and to see exhibits on a lot of the NBA and WNBA players I look up to. As part of the tour, we visited with about 50-60 high school students from the area. We conducted a question-and-answer session with them about the importance of being a successful student, athlete and person. There were a lot of questions about dealing with life. I feel like we maybe opened a lot of eyes. It was a good feeling.

After our tour, we had a shoot-out with the kids inside the Hall of Fame.

This week, we leave Monday for a game Tuesday night at Illinois State, and then we host the Hoosier State Classic on Saturday with a 3:30 game against Butler. This is also the last week of class before finals start next week, so there is a lot going on.

One Love,

Bowie