(Editor's note: Notre Dame junior center Ruth Riley will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more on the Irish, visit Notre Dame's official athletic site.)

Jan. 28, 2000

On occasion, I read the paper to catch the scores of other teams and to see how we are doing compared to everyone else.

	Riley led the nation in field goal percentage in 1999, sinking 198 of 290 attempts (68.3 percent).

Reading these articles does not place added pressure on my performance.

A lot of our wins are not a surprise. They are something that we expect of ourselves. The media and the fans expect the same as well. The long winning streak (13 games through Jan. 29) does not place added pressure on us. We set our goals early in the season. Right now, we are just trying to fulfill them step by step.

Coach Muffet McGraw helps us stay focused by telling us to take it one game at a time. She also tells us that we need to learn everything we can from every game.

Lately we haven't been playing the best basketball that we can play, and there is a lot to learn from that, especially going into the end of the season and to the tournament. Coach has been focusing on that a lot more.

Leaders of the pack
We have various leaders on this team. (Senior) Niele Ivey and (senior) Julie Henderson are our constant leaders just because they are the captains. With Niele playing the point, that also puts her in a leadership position whether she sees it or not. She has to run everything. She has to know where everyone is going and put everyone in their positions. A lot of the team looks to her for that leadership.

	THE FULL DOSE OF DIARIES
	Tulane's Grace Daley: Superstition ain't the way
	UCLA's Maylana Martin: Road warriors
	Stanford's Carolyn Moos: Forward progress
	Jackie Stiles of SMS: Road rules
	Oregon's Shaquala Williams: On the way to L.A.

Besides those two, someone else also steps up on almost every occasion. (Senior guard) Danielle Green has stepped up in the last few games. She has been playing very well. Our leaders vary from game to game.

All of the team's hard work is paying off with some of us leading the Big East in different aspects. They are all really great players. Niele is up there in assists and in points, and she is a great point guard. She is just going to get stats like that. (Freshman guard) Alicia Ratay is up there in 3-point shooting and field goal percentage. These results are coming because our players are playing the kind of game that they can play.

One thing's for sure: We are more experienced so we have that factor going for us. We have a better mix than in the past years. We know each other's moves, so that helps out, too. And now, instead of being a young team, we have maturity on our side. We are also better balanced than last year; there is no specific person that can lead us in points because it varies from night to night.