Editor's note: Oklahoma's Stacey Dales, a Kodak All-American in 2000-01, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.

Jan. 4, 2002

Is the break already over? We had three days off from practice and playing, and it was a much-needed rest. It gave us some time to relax before beginning the rigorous Big 12 season.

	Stacey Dales was the 2000-01 Big 12 Player of the Year.

It was great to spend time with my family. My parents were in town from Dec. 26-Jan. 3, and my fiancé, Chris, had his family visiting, as well. We had some great meals together and some good down time. I didn't have a chance to go look for a wedding dress, but we did finalize a lot of our wedding plans since both families were together. We set a date in April but I'm not ready to announce it just yet.

Other than the presents I received from my family, I felt that moving into our new locker room area at Lloyd Noble was like a Christmas present in itself. The facilities are wonderful, and thanks to the speedy construction work by the Lloyd Noble crew and the efforts of Joe Castiglione and Mary Jane Noble, we were able to get into the new area earlier than expected this season.

They have made our jobs of going to practice and performing everyday a lot better. We are very thankful to those who got things done in order to compete this season in a renovated facility. We made some special requests that were fulfilled, like shower heads in the bathroom that you don't have to break your neck to get under to wash your hair. Some of the shorter players might have to go and get a stool to move the shower head, but the workers did exactly what we requested and they did a great job.

After the Christmas holiday, our first couple of practices were really intense and uptempo. As the season progresses, we have to taper down our practices a little bit because the competition is so much more intense in the Big 12. We focus on playing smarter and focus less on the physical part of the game. Our practices now are really mentally-oriented. We are just running our sets and trying to polish our execution.

There's definitely more pressure on me from the other teams this year, so the mental part of the game is important for me. It seems like the amount of pressure has increased a little bit every season. I am facing more double teams and even some triple teams. Fortunately, for myself and the team, I am a good passer and I can get the ball out and find an open player. Everyone on our team can shoot the ball, so it's kind of advantageous for us to receive more pressure on one player, whether it's me or LaNeishea (Caufield) or Rosalind (Ross). We've definitely got some very strong players on our team with multiple skills, regardless of their size.

In the Colorado game, we used our quickness to outplay the bigger opponents. We have both guards and post players who can get up and down the court quickly. Coach Coale says she would take quickness over size any day. If you can get in there and really move around on defense, be relentless, pursue the ball and play with abandon, you are going to come up with some steals and big plays. That's what our team will rely on throughout the rest of the season. It definitely makes for some exciting basketball.

Go Sooners!

For more on Stacey Dales and the Sooners, visit Oklahoma's official athletic site.