(Editor's note: UC Santa Barbara junior forward Erin Buescher will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more on the Gauchos, visit UCSB's official athletic site.)

Jan. 12, 2000

Feliz Nuevo Aħo to everybody. I hope everybody had a healthier start to the New Year than I did. I ushered it in being in bed with the stomach flu, not very fun. At least my mom was in town and was able to help me through the more unpleasant stages of the tummy flu.

	THE FULL DOSE OF DIARIES
	Tulane's Grace Daley: Tigger, Pooh and pals
	UCLA's Maylana Martin: Perfect in the Pac-10
	Oregon's Shaquala Williams: Visualizing the victory

Fortunately, for me anyway, the flu hit me at a good time, considering the two hardest practices of the year happened while I was at home in bed. My teammates were a bit envious, but I would have traded places with them in a heartbeat. Practicing hard has paid off, considering we are on a seven-game winning streak. I think we have yet to play a full forty minutes of good Gaucho basketball, but we have come close. If we want to make it in the Big Dance, we need to do that on a regular basis.

School started this week, and things are starting to take somewhat more of a routine. These last two months have been very chaotic with all the traveling we did and the holidays. Things will start slowing down a bit. Big West play opens Friday with Boise State coming to the T-Dome. It will be nice to begin conference play at home. Last year we won the Big West, and doing it again is a top priority for our team. We can't take any team too lightly, because we know each team is going to be gunning for us.

It was fun to see TawnTe (Cooper) get back into rhythm on Sunday night, because she has had a quiet season so far. I will have to take part of the responsibility for that because Rachelle Rogers and I braided her hair before the game, giving her what she needed. Seriously, she played very well against Loyola Marymount and if she can play like that all the time we will be a very tough team to beat.

I want to say happy birthday to Kristyn Miller who turned 20 on Monday ... so happy birthday, Pinky (she developed that nickname because of how easily her face gets flushed).

It was also my sister's birthday, and both of them were in town the last couple of days, keeping me company. We had a great time doing a whole lot of nothing together.

I am off to explore the cliffs of Santa Barbara on my new mountain bike -- complete with the clip-in shoes and water bottle backpack -- I got for Christmas since I like to play, and today is our day off.

Smiles,

Erin