(Editor's note: UCLA's Maylana Martin, a senior forward, will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more information on the Bruins, visit UCLA's official athletic site.)

Feb. 1, 2000

	Martin

We're coming off a disappointing weekend after playing the Oregon schools. We beat Oregon State on Thursday but really didn't play as well as I would've hoped. Then we played Oregon on Saturday and didn't do well at all. We came out kind of flat. We were up by three at halftime and were leading most of the game until the end. Then we got a technical and the Ducks got up by four late in the game and we weren't able to recover after that. They played a 2-3 zone and forced us to prove ourselves from the outside, and that worked for them. Hopefully we can learn from this game and it will carry over into the Stanford and Cal games this weekend.

As for facing Stanford this week, I'm sure the Cardinal will play us relatively the same way Oregon did. They'll probably sit back in the 2-3 zone until we can prove ourselves from the outside.

They are playing really well right now, and shooting extremely well from 3-point range. I actually think they have a couple girls shooting better than 40 percent from out there. Their inside game is strong too, with (Bethany) Donaphin and (Carolyn) Moos. It's going to be a big game for us and we're going to have to do well from both the perimeter and the post.

Hopefully, Janae (Hubbard), Takiyah (Jackson), Carly (Funicello) and I will shut down their inside people and the rest of the team will work on their outside players.

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We did well up there last year, and ended up breaking their 67-game home winning streak in conference play. That was a huge game for us. We went in there and played hard and everyone really played together as a team. It was a great feeling because I can remember going up there and getting killed by 25, so last year was huge for us. Hopefully we can go up there and get another win.

Maples Pavilion is a tough place to win. It's a little smaller than most arenas so that makes it a lot louder as well. They have great fan support and the game is usually a sellout. Everybody talks about the floor up there. It's set kind of on springs and it's something you really don't notice when you're playing, but when you're on the bench and players run by, you kind of bounce around on the bench. Every once in a while you'll hit it just right and when you jump, it shoots you up and you have to adjust your shot. It's a really big homecourt advantage for them, but once you get used to playing there it's not too bad. I actually enjoy playing in Maples.

The Stanford weekends are always big for me because as a lot of people already know, I also considered attending Stanford. It was one of my last choices. When I was deciding where I wanted to go to school, it came down to UCLA and Stanford. I was really close to signing with the Cardinal. That was back when they had Kate Starbird, Jamila Wideman, Vanessa Nygaard, Heather Owen and all them. They had gone to the Final Four the year I signed with UCLA and I think they went to the Final Four the year after, so it was a really tough decision for me.

Stanford has such a rich tradition in women's basketball. UCLA has tradition as well, but it's from the '70s and a little older. Stanford was doing really well when I was growing up and I remember watching them all the time, especially when they won it all in '92. I bet every girl on the West Coast who grew up playing basketball thought about playing for Stanford. So that's why this is always a big weekend for me, to go up there and play well.

This past weekend I went up to my cousin's house and then we went over to his friend's house to watch the Super Bowl. There was a lot of good food and some fun people to hang out with. Carly and I hung out with my cousin and had a good time. I really didn't care who won the game. I was just glad to see a good game. I'm glad the Titans came back and made it exciting for everybody.