(Editor's note: LSU junior Temeka Johnson, an honorable mention All-American in 2001-02, will share a diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.)

Nov. 27, 2002

	Johnson

Remember in one of my earlier entries how I mentioned that we can't wait to get into some game situations? Well, we certainly took care of that in the first weekend of the season! Three games in four days -- with two of them on the road!

We left last Wednesday evening for Arizona and got in late that night. Even though we practiced that day and traveled at evening, it's hard to sleep when you get to the hotel. I don't know if it is the anticipation of a game or being in a new place, but we never can check into the hotel and just fall asleep. I like to read over the scouting reports that the coaches give us until I get sleepy. They are pretty detailed, not that it puts me to sleep (smile).

The next day we went to the University of Arizona and practiced. Arizona is really different from Louisiana and it didn't take us long to notice on the bus ride to the arena. For one, Arizona has some huge mountains while Louisiana is completely flat. There was also cacti everywhere and it was obvious that it wasn't easy to grow grass in your yard.

Practice went well. The rest of the day we went back to the hotel before spending a little bit of time roaming around the mall and eating dinner. The evening finished up with a team meeting where we watched a scouting video on Arizona.

Game day is the longest day especially a night game. I get anxious. The game with Arizona was pretty hectic. The Wildcats started out fast and got a 7-2 lead on us before we battled back. Then the rest of the game seemed like each team would take turns putting together little spurts and flip-flopping the lead. We finally pulled away in overtime, but it had to be a fun game to watch. Arizona has a really nice team and I think it will be one of the surprise teams in the country this year.

	Temeka Johnson and LSU needed only seven players to upset Tennessee in the SEC tourney last season.

What was a little different about the game is that Arizona's leading scorer was Shawntinice Polk with 29 -- a freshman. Our leading scored was Seimone (Augustus) with 27 -- also a freshman!

The next morning we had a 6 a.m. wake-up call and then off to the airport. We had a really long layover in Dallas (more than three hours) so we all went to eat in the airport. Our head manager Tenille (O'Neal) had her parents, who live in Arlington, come and visit her at the airport. We finally got back into Baton Rouge around 5 p.m. and got back to our apartments in time to watch our football team come from behind to beat Ole Miss.

The next morning we met for breakfast and boarded the bus and headed to Hammond to play Southeastern Louisiana. The first half was very exciting. A little too exciting for our coaches (smile). But the second half we kicked it in and pulled away for 93-52 win.

Some neat things happened at the game. The first was that it was the largest crowd to see a game at Southeastern, which was exciting. We had a lot of fans that traveled to Hammond to support us. Coach Gunter said to the media that she was pleased in the second half because we never missed a beat when she substituted. I think that will be important for us the rest of the year -- regardless of who is playing, we need to execute.

Anyway, we are back on the bus after the game and here come the coaches passing out another scouting report for our game tomorrow night. At least this one will be at home. The opponent was Florida Atlantic. We played a very solid game. We opened up with a lead in the beginning and steadily built on it. Everyone scored and that makes it nice for the entire team. We also had a nice crowd -- around 2,600 I think. Not a bad crowd for a Monday night early in the season.

After the game, a few of us went back to my apartment and ate crawfish etoufe, greenbeans, potato salad, corn bread and fried fish! It was a great post-game feast , thanks to Seimone's grandmother.

I wish I could tell you that after three games in four days that we had a little rest, but that's not the case. We practiced the next day, and today (Wednesday) we head to Miami to play in a tournament at Florida International. We will have our Thanksgiving dinner in Miami and two of my teammates are very happy. Patty (Hanten) and Flo (Williams) are both from Miami, so they will get to see their families.

Well, until next time. Happy Thanksgiving!

Temeka