(Editor's note: Tulane senior guard Grace Daley will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more information on the Green Wave, visit Tulane's official athletic site.)

Jan. 10, 2000

	Daley

Greetings Green Wave Fans. My friends know me well, so one of them got me a Winnie the Pooh 2000 Year-In-A-Box calendar -- you know, the kind where you flip over to a new page everyday? I never peek a day ahead, but sometimes I'm so excited to see what fun quote or saying the next day has on it that I stay up or wake up at midnight just to flip the page! Today's kind of made me laugh. It's got Eeyore on it looking sad and dejected (being his usual self) saying, "Here we go. Again."

Well, I thought about that in terms of our team and our season at Tulane thus far and I came to the conclusion that if I designed the calendar, today's page would say the same thing. It wouldn't be a picture of Eeyore, though! It would be Tigger and it would be written like this: "Here we go! Again!" As excited as I am about the way things have been going (we're 14-0 right now), today might even have to be an animated page! Tigger would be springing around on his tail pouncing everyone in sight and telling them what's happening at Tulane! I guess in reality that's what our national ranking does for us.

On a similar topic, lately I've gotten a whole lot of questions regarding our undefeated season so far. People always ask if that adds any sort of extra burden or pressure to the team. My answer is always simple. What most people interpret as (or call) pressures -- speaking on behalf of the team -- we call these things an honor. It's an honor to be one of three undefeated teams left in the nation. It's an honor to be nationally ranked.

	THE FULL DOSE OF DIARIES
	UCSB's's Erin Buescher: No practice makes...perfect?
	UCLA's Maylana Martin: Praising Arizona
	Notre Dame's Ruth Riley: On the road again
	Oregon's Shaquala Williams: It's all about heart

But is that our main focus? Not at all. We just go into every practice and every game one at a time, seeking not only to improve ourselves but to find a way to elevate the game of everyone around us. That's all we've been doing all year long -- working hard. But perhaps even more importantly, we've been working together ... and look where that philosophy has gotten us!

The reason I said, "Here we go! AGAIN!" earlier is because, to some extent, we've been in this situation before (as far as being a red-hot target for other teams). Here's a quote from Pooh's Little Instruction Book to put things into perspective in a simple way: "If you're standing on the slippery bank of a river, be careful. If somebody bounces you loudly from behind, you'll probably slip."

Right now we're standing on the bank of a river that's gushing and so far this season we've been "bounced loudly from behind" a few times. But as Pooh so eloquently put it, "In case of sudden or temporary immersion, the important thing is to keep the head above the water." At 14-0, sometimes it feels like we're walking on top of the water!

OK, it's time for me to sign off now ... only two more days in the Garden of Eden before school starts! We've got four big road games coming up in a row so keep a look out for us and have a great week!

TTFN! Ta ta for now!

Grace