(Editor's note: Oregon sophomore guard Shaquala Williams will share a weekly diary with ESPN.com throughout the season. For more information on the Ducks, visit Oregon's official athletic site.)

Jan. 4, 2000

	Williams

We're at our best when we're playing at home, where we're always emotional and happy and have so much fan support behind us. On the road, you have to create your own energy, which can be difficult to do. But we haven't played at home since Dec. 4, and for the length of time that we spent on the road -- seven straight games and counting -- and the places that we went, it has been really difficult.

For some reason we just haven't been able to put it all together. We're playing teams we know we're better than, that we should be beating by 30 points, but we've been making life a lot harder for ourselves. We haven't really been able to match their intensity level all the time, which is something we should be able to do.

For now, we're just happy to get Pac-10 play started. We know the teams are as good as -- and some even better than -- us, so we really have to come into games prepared. It's so hard when you play teams that make their season if they beat you. We had a meeting after the San Francisco game and everybody got things off their chests, and we kind of came back with a different philosophy on how we're going to approach practice -- it just needs to be more competitive.

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So, this might be our best week of practice. If we have a great week, Oregon State (Saturday's opponent) could have a tough time against us. We just want to get back on track. We realize we don't want to mess up in the Pac-10 because one game could mean a Pac-10 championship or NCAA Tournament berth.

The game against San Francisco (a 66-60 loss on Sunday) was a nightmare for me. I don't think I've ever shot that badly (3 of 14 from the field, including an 0-for-7 performance from 3-point range) in my life. But you just have to learn from those things and move on. I need to get in the gym and work on that. I'm looking forward to getting back on track.