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

Jan. 8, 2001

Dear Diary,

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

Hello to all and Happy New Year! I feel like I haven't written one of these in a couple of months. I was starting to get into a routine with it, but had to take a well-deserved break.

Anyway, things here are going well. We just started class today, and I am already convinced that this semester is going to go well. I had my philosophy and organizational leadership classes this morning, and we had today off from practice! I guess that is a good way to start off the week.

I am only carrying 12 hours this semester because my college education is winding down. After this spring, I have only nine hours to take before I graduate. I am currently counting the weeks until I graduate -- 36 weeks left as a college student! That is kind of scary considering I have no idea what I am going to do. I guess I have some time to figure it out.

I hope everyone's holidays were as good as mine. I must have been a good girl most of the year because Santa brought me most of the gifts I had on my wish list. I got the ordinary things such as clothes and shoes. But this year was special because I asked for some pretty outrageous things such as a leather coat, a mini-disc home unit, clothes, jewelry, etc. ? everything that a 21-year old should at least ask for. What was special is that Santa brought me most of those things. After writing this diary, I am, of course, going to write to Santa and let he and Mrs. Claus know how much I appreciated their gifts.

After Christmas I had to take my presents and ship off to West Lafayette. I have been here ever since and have had some time to catch up on a lot of sleep. My New Year's Eve celebration was not all that exciting. I sat in my apartment and watched television for numerous hours until deciding to go to bed around 11:45. I faded into my REM right when the new year was ringing in. Needless to say, I hope that my next New Year's Eve will be a bit more fun.

As far as basketball, we are doing well. Currently, we are 4-0 in the Big Ten. This might not seem like an accomplishment, but three out of our four have been on the road. It is never easy to win on the road, but we are doing so much better as a team this year away from Mackey Arena.

We don't have another game until Sunday (Northwestern), so this week we get a little rest. I think that it comes at a good time because now everyone can get used to their new schedules and all that fun stuff.

Even though we are doing well, we did have a major setback last week. Our back-up center, Mary Jo Noon, went down with a torn ACL in the Iowa game on Jan. 4. She is out for the remainder of the year, which obviously thins out our post play. I know Mary Jo will come back strong, but it is always hard to see one of your teammates go down. However, there may be a silver lining in the cloud. Mary Jo's freshman campaign was ended early with a foot injury. That year we went on to win the national championship. While it may be hard to win without Mary Jo, maybe it could be some kind of omen. I am not sure, but we all would really like to win another one for Mary Jo.

Well, that is all for this week. Stay tuned for next week's exciting entry.

KT