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Thursday, January 20
Updated: January 30, 10:25 AM ET
 
Life of Riley: On the road again

(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. 20, 2000

The month off (from school) has been really good for our team. You can get a lot more done when you are not in classes, and you can work on individual things that you really didn't have a whole of time to work on during the year.

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

We are playing together a lot better in this past month. Our defense is getting better. At the beginning of the year, it really was a little shaky. Our offense is flowing a lot better, too.

In the past month, I really have been working on staying out of foul trouble. The fouls have really hurt my game since I have been here. I have also worked on keeping the ball high. There are just little things that I needed to work on like finishing shots and rebounding.

Our starting lineup has changed quite a bit this season. It is not really a surprise because we have a lot of good players. It is hard for coach to pick five every game to start. In the last game, (junior) Kelley Siemon really played well and that is what we need from our forward position. (Junior) Meaghan Leahy came in well against Georgetown (an 82-60 win on Jan. 8) as well, and right now, our forward position is really standing out.

THE FULL DOSE OF DIARIES
UCSB's's Erin Buescher:
No practice makes...perfect?
UCLA's Maylana Martin:
Praising Arizona
Oregon's Shaquala Williams:
It's all about heart

It is really hard having so many road games in the next couple of weeks (three of Notre Dame's next four games are on the road), especially for the freshmen. It is the beginning of second semester and they have to start it off by balancing the time between school and basketball. At the beginning of the year, they at least had time to get used to it. Traveling is also tough because you are just starting your classes and getting to know your professors.





Notre Dame's official athletic site

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