Editor's note: Ball State second-year coach Tracy Roller, who last season led the Cardinals to their first postseason appearance, will share a diary with ESPN.com throughout the season.

Nov. 27, 2002

	Roller

Thanksgiving couldn't have come at a better time for the staff and players from Ball State University. Not because the student-athletes on our team are looking forward to the reprieve from the rigors of academia during our short Thanksgiving break (although, I'm sure that is true!). And not because this is the first time in more than seven years that I'm going to be able to partake in Aunt Shirley's turkey dinner, Mom Roller's dessert, watch games with Dad and see my family on Thanksgiving (college teams are usually away from home playing on Thanksgiving).

And it isn't because we have a day off from practice (the team might not agree with me on this one!). But the real reason that our team is looking forward to Thanksgiving is because we need a little "thanks" in our lives right about now.

We were picked to win the Mid-American Conference West Division for a second straight year (for whatever preseason polls are worth!) and we have been getting votes in the latest Top 25 polls. So if I told you that we started the season so far with a 1-2 record, you might think that our team is down and out, in need of some encouragement that you can only get from family members around a turkey-clad dinner table. I mean, we have senior Tamara Bowie, a Kodak All-American Honorable Mention and MAC Player of the Year candidate. And we have five returning Cardinals who played significant minutes for our 24-8 MAC regular-season championship team and WNIT second-round participant. We MUST need some serious stuffing and sweet potatoes!

	Ball State's Tamara Bowie is a two-time All-MAC first-team pick.

But actually, the true meaning of Thanksgiving is to be thankful for what you HAVE. You see, the two losses came at the hands of 2002 Preseason WNIT champions Kansas State (71-61), which was ranked third and fourth in the polls at the time but has since moved to No. 2, and Indiana, the 2002 Big 10 tournament champions (103-95 in double overtime in the championship game of the Hampton Inn/Fazoli's Classic). The lone victory came against 2002 WNIT runner-up Houston (78-63 in the first round of IU's Classic).

Like so many coaches, I have taken the hard road in our nonconference schedule and I am thankful for the opportunity to compete with quality teams to make our team better for the future. But we didn't just COMPETE! We let two slip away in the late minutes of the game and good teams like K-State and IU will isolate your weaknesses and beat you in the crunch time. I am thankful that we will be one of those teams someday. Hopefully it will be someday soon!

Good players, good people
Yet, it isn't just the games for which I am thankful -- it is the players. As mentioned earlier, our team has five returning players, one of which is our ONLY senior, Bowie, who was picked as the unanimous MVP of the Indiana Tournament this past weekend. Tamara scored 53 points (breaking Emma Jones' Ball State's career-scoring mark) and had 23 rebounds in both games of the tournament, all while suffering from the flu. Junior Johna Goff, was selected to the all-tournament team in part due to her 3-point basket with 9 seconds left in regulation to put our game against IU into overtime. Johna also had 23 points against K-State.

Then there is our freshman point guard, Dana Collins, who ONLY had 18 points and nine assists against IU and held Laurie Koehn, Kansas State's guard who lead the nation in 3-pointers last season, to 13 points and only 1 3. All five of our starters are averaging double figures. And our bench -- three freshmen, a junior college transfer, a walk-on from last season who worked her tail off to earn a scholarship this year, and a freshman from Minnesota who is also a walk-on -- all continue to improve. Our team chemistry is the best of any team I have ever been associated with. They are not only good players, but they are good people. That is what I am thankful for.

As a coach, you are always looking for ways to improve; our young team will struggle with that all year. And as we prepare for the upcoming tournament at Lehigh, we have plenty to improve on, especially if we want to compete in a strong Mid-American Conference. We struggle with depth, consistency, and our team has yet to realize how hard you must practice everyday to be a champion. Hopefully over turkey and dressing they will get it. And we will all be thankful for that!