Mistie Williams Blog: Entry 5

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with the four F's; family, friends, food and football. I had a great Thanksgiving with my team and my husband. It was the first time Kenny and I actually celebrated the holiday together because last year the team was in the Bahamas at the Junkanoo Jam. Now usually I love to cook, but Kenny did most of it. He made homemade dressing, broccoli and rice casserole, and chicken and dumplings. I made a ham and some desserts, but all the credit goes to him. Monique and Wanisha came to enjoy the food as well during the men's basketball game against Memphis. There isn't anything like some down south home cooking. It was wonderful, but leftovers are a pain. It's terrible to waste such great food.

The team has been fine! They are acting up as usual. It never fails when it is time to write another diary entry, something always happens within the team that is worth telling everyone about. Lately, we have this thing called co-signing that has clearly become very popularized by most members of the team. It used to be that if two people were having a conversation they wouldn't have to worry about someone else being all into their business. That is not the case anymore! Not only is there eavesdropping, but people are now adding their two sense into a conversation that is not even theirs.

So the word “co-signing” is a term/action that people on the team to describe someone who is butting into a conversation and taking a side. For example, if Chante and I were sitting in the bus talking about a game and she said “Mistie, that girl scored like 10 points on you” and I reply “no she didn't, she only had like 5 points. The “co-signing” part would be Wanisha coming from the seat behind talking about, “yes she did Mistie! She was killing you.” Both Chante and I would be like where did you come from? Mind your own business. It is all fun and games though because we always call the person out on it. The main people who overuse this term is... Chante Black, Wanisha Smith, and I have to admit it's me as well. Jessica Foley has even started to mock us because we take it overboard. Now we loosely use the term for everything. It is to the point we have rules about co-signing. It is out of control.

Having sisters on the team is quite interesting! Emily and Abby Waner are always together. It came to the point that in beginning of the season they had to be separated on different teams for pick-up games. It is funny because they can be the best of friends one moment and hate each other the next. On the court, Emily would say, “Abby, geez come on.” Abby would rely, “shut-up Emily, God!” It is perfect entertainment for the team. On our last road trip, Emily and Abby sat in the last seats on the bus...together. They were having fun, laughing, and making up “terrible dances” to the song Laffy Taffy.

Everyone on the team was like; we will see how long that lasts. It wasn't even an hour later when Emily gets up and sits with Jessica. We all said what's wrong? Emily said, “It's not all fun and games anymore.” We all laughed so hard. Abby said, it's not my fault you forgot your ipod. They were fighting over both the window seat and a music gadget. We couldn't do anything but shake our heads.

The team just finished five games in 10 days and everyone feels pretty good about the progress our team is making. We opened our season with an away game at Penn State, traveled to Old Dominion a day later, came to Cameron to play Fairfield, Arkansas State, and Auburn. The best part about these games is that no one played more than 26 minutes and everyone showcased their talents. Abby Waner, our freshman, is an incredible player. She has some talent and she is going to become one of the fans favorites. Laura Kurz has been playing great! Look at her game against Arkansas State; she was 100 % from the field and had 19 points. She has improved tremendously and she is going to be a great player for us this year. Then of course, Lindsey Harding our point guard. I just love this girl. In my mind she is the best point guard in the nation...hands down! There is a reason that she was MVP of our tournament! Well that was just some thoughts on players.

Our team has improved enormously on the defensive end and it is really exciting. Over the past three years that I have been here, our team has always been so good at everything right in the beginning of the season, making it difficult to really see improvement. This team is full of talent, but the great part about the team is that we do have things to work on!

In practice we are constantly trying to get better on defense, get better at rebounding, and being more aggressive and passionate on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. The only way to get better with all of these is to make each other accountable for them in practice everyday. If someone isn't doing their job, someone else is going to let them know. The team really expects the best from each other and it is reassuring that we are on the same page and have the same goals.

Currently, we are preparing for our upcoming games and upcoming final exams. The good thing about all that is my birthday is right in the middle. Yes! I'm getting older...ha ha. We shall see how long that is going to last. I'll be 22 on December 2. I'm excited because my mom and all of my in-laws are coming to the game in Austin, Texas. I love having family around, especially for games. After the games in Texas, it is all about school. Everyone has finals coming up and it tends to be a stressful time. Studying lasts all night sometimes, in Jessica Foley's case...all the time. She is Pre-Med and is getting a major in environmental sciences, so you can imagine here work loads including basketball.

The scary thing about finals coming up is that I will only have one semester left after this. It is incredible how fast this senior year is going. I have been really thinking about life after college. There is no doubt I want to play professional basketball, but what else do I want to do? I'll keep everyone updated with that later because it is all about Duke Women's Basketball right now. We have a National Championship to pursue, and that is what is important.

Take Care everyone!

Until Next Time,

Mistie Williams