(Editor's note: Purdue junior Shereka Wright, a 5-foot-10 forward and All-Big Ten first-team pick, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Jan. 21, 2003

	Wright

As the nation celebrates the birth of an amazing man, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I find it fitting to reflect on this weekend's disappointment with a quotation From Dr. King: "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

This weekend, we -- my teammates, our coaching staff and Purdue fans -- suffered a disappointing loss at the hands of Minnesota. Saying this is in no way an attempt to undermine the efforts put forth by the Gophers, but I believe that we must accept the fact that this defeat was one that we inflicted upon ourselves. Somewhere between the announcement of the starting lineup and the sounding of the final buzzer, my teammates and I lost focus of what we had come to do. We went to Minneapolis to win, but we played not to lose.

Although we rallied back to within two in the second half from a 17-point deficit, it was too little, too late. We would come no closer and suffered a heartbreaking loss. While we must accept the losses that we have suffered to this point, we will not lose the infinite hope that we have to be successful this year.

And as we commemorate the life and dream of Dr. King, this Boilermaker team also has a dream that we will not lose sight of. We have dreams to overcome disappointment. We have dreams of being successful. We have dreams of Big Ten titles. We have dreams of a national championship. And we BELIEVE that all of these dreams are attainable if we stay focused and maintain that infinite hope.

For more on Wright and Purdue, visit the Boilermakers' official athletic site.