(Editor's note: Mississippi State sophomore LaToya Thomas, who led the SEC in scoring last season en route to landing a spot on the Kodak All-American team, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Jan. 8, 2001

	Thomas

I'm back! It has been another eventful couple of weeks. We traveled to Southern Miss to play a game on the Dec. 19, and though the game was tough, we pulled it off successfully. The Golden Eagles played us with so much enthusiasm and it was a closely fought game. I wish them the best of luck with the rest of the season.

After the game, most of my teammates went home with their parents. Some of them had to go back to Starkville and fly home the next day, but I got to go home to Greenville as soon as the game was over. I was ready to go home and I had plenty of fun.

I did spend some quality time with my family and friends during the short break. I also got a chance to eat some of my favorite food in America. It's like a barbecue place that is located in my hometown called Peanut Redd. It's unexplainable and if I had to tell you about it, you still wouldn't know. I got to eat some good soul food, too.

I had to be back in Starkville on Christmas day. We had practice at 6 that night. Nobody was ready to come back but we had to fly out the next day to New York.

We arrived in New York around 5 p.m. on the 26th and went straight to eat. We had practice that night, too. The next day, we played Albany. It was a tough game and they came out to play. The Great Danes played like champions that had heart, but we managed to pull off the win.

On the 28th, we drove to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and had practice again. We faced Marist on the 29th and we came out ready to play. We had improved from the Albany game but still have a lot to learn. I also want to wish both teams the best of luck this season.

We were supposed to visit the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., before heading back to Albany to fly out on the 30th, but the weather messed it up. There was so much snow when we woke up that morning that coach decided to drive straight to Albany. As we rode on the bus, you couldn't see anything but white. It had only taken us two hours to get to Poughkeepsie two days earlier, but it took us close to four hours that morning.

When we got to the Albany airport, our flight out that night had already been cancelled. We headed to the mall to eat and walk around a bit while the airlines worked on getting us out the next day. After spending forever on the phone in the mall, coach finally told us we were driving to Boston in order to fly out the next day.

We left Albany around 2:30 p.m. and didn't get into Boston until 70 p.m. Some people said that drive is only three or four hours, but we were on the bus forever. We couldn't go very fast because the roads were bad, but we just kept pushing through all of the snow. Once we got to Boston, there was no snow, just rain.

We ate and went to bed so we could be up early to fly out. Coach called at 6:15 and said that our 9 a.m. flight had been cancelled so we could sleep in a little. We finally flew out of Boston at 1:15 p.m. on the 31st. We had a layover in Atlanta, and then flew to Jackson, Miss., so we actually didn't get back to Starkville until 8 p.m. It was a crazy trip.

I am excited to be starting the SEC season. This league is so competitive and is made up of some great players. Coach always says that competing for an SEC title is like competing for a national title because the league is made up of some of the best teams in the country.

Classes started back up today. Breaks never seem to last long enough. I'm going to have some tough classes this semester, but I'll try not to complain too much.

I'm out!

Tido