(Editor's note: Purdue senior Katie Douglas, a 1999-2000 Kodak All-American, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Dec. 11, 2000

Dearest Diary,

	Katie Douglas led the Big Ten in scoring last season with a 20.4 average.

It is a cold and rainy day here in West Lafayette. Not only is the weather bad, but it is also finals week. While it's a good thing that school is over in a week, now is also a time of stressful cramming sessions to prepare for my exams.

I am pleased to say, though, that I have only two finals, one Thursday and one Friday. But there is still a lot of pressure to perform well on back-to-back days. Anyhow, since these finals occur later on in the week, I've decided to focus on other aspects of my life until tomorrow, when I begin studying. So now I will just let everyone know what has been going on with me over the past seven days.

Well, I was stressed to the limit early last week. We returned from Boston College last Monday around noon. I had a presentation to get to that was at 1:30. The problem was that my group had to prepare and do the rehearsal over the weekend, and I wasn't able to attend. However, I went to the presentation well-rehearsed with my lines, and actually did well. It was over something I had no idea about -- eye safety on a construction site -- but we pulled through with an "A" performance.

After that I went straight to my next group meeting for another presentation. I was there for about eight hours that night putting the last-minute touches on our presentation. After my longest group meeting, I went home to prepare what I was going to say the next day during the presentation. Anyway, the presentation went extremely well, even though it lasted about 1½ hours. Again, our group came through in the clutch and received an "A" for our efforts.

As soon as that was over, I went to board the bus departing for Valparaiso. I had never in my life felt so relieved to get on a bus and leave West Lafayette. It was a great feeling to do a good job, but it felt even better to be done with those classes.

I'll skip over this last weekend, especially since we lost at Notre Dame. That game was pretty big for our team, but we just couldn't get it done. And it has been on my mind for the past couple of days.

I hope that after everyone completes their finals, we will be ready to play in another big game -- against Louisiana State on Saturday in Conseco Fieldhouse. I am pretty excited to play LSU, not only because the Tigers are a great team, but also because the game will be played in my hometown of Indianapolis. I love to go home and play in front of my hometown fans. There is nothing like it in the world. I am upset, though, that this will be the last time I ever play a college game in "Naptown." Usually we have our Big Ten Tournament in Indy, but this will be the first year it moves to Michigan. I know the local fans would love for it to be in Indiana, as would I. But I don't care where we play as long as we win.

Well folks, I am going to sign off for now. I am going to do a little Christmas shopping and then study, of course. By the way, if any relatives or close friends who are expecting a gift from me actually read this, they should probably e-mail me ASAP and let me know what they want for Christmas.

Like they always say, "Ask and you shall receive" (within reason of course). But, "If you do not ask, you shall not receive." I made that last one up, but it is a motto of mine, especially around Christmastime. Happy holidays and happy shopping!

Katie Douglas (KT)