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Tuesday, January 18 Updated: January 25, 9:54 AM ET It's all about heart |
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(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. 17, 2000
This has to have been the worst week of my college life. First, I lost my wallet with all of my identification inside. Then, my car gets booted for parking tickets and it costs me 250 dollars to get the boot removed. (I'm poor. Where am I going to get 250 dollars from?) To top it all off, a professor of mine does not seem to like me very much. Trouble is, the class is in my major. All of my other teachers seem to love me. And of course, there was Saturday's 78-62 loss to Oregon. Next time someone asks me the most embarrassing moment of my life, I'd have to say blowing a 26-point lead and then losing by an additional 20 points on national TV. After that game I did not know whether to laugh, cry or cuss. I was in disbelief. We played like a top-10 team in the first 17 minutes (Oregon led 36-10 at one point), but we forgot about the other 23. We got outworked, outsmarted, just outplayed. Stanford was down by 26 and never gave up; we were down by five and threw in the towel. It's about heart, not from one or two players, but from all 15. I give Stanford all the credit in the world -- the Cardinal deserved that game.
Right now I feel like the worst point guard in the country. How did I let my team lose a 26-point lead? I really let us down this game. I'm in a terrible funk right now, I can't shoot a pea into the ocean. It's so frustrating because I spend so much time outside of practice trying to better my game and I just can't seem to do anything right. And I will not and cannot accept how I have been playing. But I'll never give up or stop working ... my heart is too big for that. That's the beauty of hard work: I can't do anything but eventually get better. You live and learn. But I guarantee you that I will never lose again like I did at Stanford. I've got too much pride and heart for that! |
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