Editor's note: Louisiana Tech's Brooke Lassiter, a senior guard and two-year co-captain, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.

Jan. 21, 2002

Hello everyone! I hope your week was a little less stressful than mine was this past week. The rigors of being a student-athlete climaxed for me on Wednesday when I took a Real Estate Finance exam that was not too inviting. Let's just say I have no future in the real estate business!

	Brooke Lassiter averaged 10.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists last season.

I was ecstatic when Friday rolled around because I had finally finished all of my makeup exams and we left for our trip to Dallas. Our bodies had gotten over the jet lag from the previous week's trip to Hawaii and we were ready for our game against SMU.

I survived the bus ride to Texas by reading one of my new books. I'm an avid reader of biographies and my newest investment is "Landry -- The Legend and the Legacy." So far, I'm really enjoying learning about Tom Landry, longtime coach of the Dallas Cowboys, and his fascinating life and career. The pages turned, the cities passed by, and we had arrived in "Big D" before I realized it.

My parents and sister made the trip to Dallas and I enjoyed some time at the mall with them before we had to go to practice and prepare ourselves for anything SMU might throw our way on Sunday. I did not make many purchases at the mall but enjoyed getting out of the hotel for a little while and telling the fam all about our trip to Hawaii.

After practice on Saturday night, we had the great privilege of attending the Jazz/Mavericks game thanks to Cheryl Ford's dad, Karl Malone. I know she was excited about seeing him and also because her mom and sister were able to make the trip for our game. The NBA game was great except for the outcome; the Mavs beat the Jazz by three despite an inspiring fourth-quarter comeback.

Our mission was to make it on the jumbo screen before we left the game and our mission was accomplished! We had a great time dancing to the music during the stoppages of play and using our blow up noisemakers to aggravate each other to no end. They came in handy for our fans during our game the next day.

Coach Johnson and Katie got to meet Mark Cuban, the vibrant owner of the Mavs franchise, at halftime of the game and were very excited. I hope he wasn't trying to recruit them to help him manage another Dairy Queen for a day! He sure seems to use his outlandish behavior to attract more and more attention and publicity to the Mavericks.

Sunday the whole Jazz team, with the exception of John Stockton and John Amaechi, sat on the baseline (press tables) and cheered for us the entire game! What a great gesture it was for them to come along with Karl to watch his daughter and her teammates play. We appreciated them coming and it's always exciting when a parent is able to watch his daughter play.

We continued our winning streak this week by beating SMU on Sunday in front of lots of Tech fans that so graciously drove to lend their support and help us win on the road. Thanks so much to all those who traveled to the game and for being a great "sixth man" for us on Sunday. To all my "buddies" from the Marbury Center, thanks for all of your tireless work and support. I hope our performance made the trip worthwhile for everyone!

I enjoyed my day off from class and practice today (Monday) by doing some cleaning and organizing around my house. It was way past due and now I feel ready to start my week. I hope you all had a wonderful MLK day; he was a great man who helped change America for the better!

See you all next week!

Brooke