(Editor's note: Connecticut sophomore forward Ashley Battle, a WBCA and Parade high school All-American, will share a diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Jan. 10, 2003

	Battle

It is the beginning of a new year and the start of another entry. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on how you look at it -- nothing exciting has really happened. We had a couple of days to go home for Christmas, which was good to see family. After Christmas, Coach (Geno Auriemma) invited us to a New Year's Eve party.

Now that was a sight to see. Everyone was dancing and having a good time. And then Barbara (Turner) started to dance and the funniest thing happened. Mind you, she is the worst dancer. She just doesn't have any rhythm. But the girl grabbed Coach and just started dancing with him. She was getting crazy with it, and he didn't know what to do, so he pushed her away from him. Coach was a great sport, but stood pretty much on the other side of the room for the rest of the night. He was actually a pretty good dancer, though.

Card sharks
When we are not dancing and or singing karaoke, we are playing cards. The game that we used to play 24-7 was Spades, but now there is a new game on the block, which is called Phase 10. This is a long game which takes forever. The object is to finish your phases first. Some of the phases consist of getting three sets of four or a run of seven.

In fact, my teammates are probably somewhere right now playing the game as you read this. It's like nicotine -- they are soooo addicted. We play anywhere we can find room -- on the bus, on the plane, in airports during layovers, in hotels, in our rooms, basically everywhere we go. Our team is so competitive that sometimes the game ends in arguments and occasionally the cards get thrown at each other. But that's a story for another day.

Happy New Year to everyone!