Finally we are back home! We had a three-game road trip and we came away with three big wins, which makes coming home even better. Tonight we have our Pack the Petersen game and it is always a lot of fun. Our fans are great anyway and so much fun to play in front of, but it seems like this game is always really big.

Our road trip was tough. Against Seton Hall, we played really well and had our biggest win over them in school history. Syracuse was a hard-fought game and Xenia Stewart hit the game-winner for us so we were so happy to get out of there with a win. We finished it up at Georgetown. We didn't play great in the first half, but in the second, we pulled away and got the three-game sweep. In this league, any road game is a tough one so we were so happy to get those three wins.

One really tough thing about the Syracuse trip though, was the loss of Kay Yow. We found out the morning of that game. It was very sad and it hit our team really hard. One of our teammates, Sophronia Sallard, lost her mother to breast cancer at the start of last season so it brought back memories. We were in her hometown of Syracuse too, which made it even tougher.

I am really sad for N.C. State too. Coach Yow had been there for so long and it's such a nasty disease to have to go through. I can't imagine how they will finish their season without their coach. My thoughts definitely go out to them.

Tae

Well, we are back on the winning track! My best friend, Jessica Lawson, plays at USF and we got a big win against them last weekend. It was fun to talk back and forth out on the court to her, and especially to come up with the win so I have bragging rights.

On January 20, we had a historical day with our first black president being sworn into office. We were supposed to have shoot around at Seton Hall at the time President Obama was being sworn in, but Coach B surprised us and allowed us to see it before we started practice. The Seton Hall coach invited us to come into her office so we could see history. It was such a great experience and I think we all were thankful we could take part in it in some small way. Now, 20 years from now, we will remember exactly where we were when we saw it and we can tell people our story.

We all thought the Seton Hall game would be a lot closer than it was. We needed that win and we played really well. We slipped for a few games, but we have bounced back and got that first Big East road win Tuesday night. Now we have two more tough road games ahead at Syracuse and Georgetown and we know it won't be easy.

It has been an exciting week already and hopefully we can keep the momentum going. Until next week!

Tae 

Today I am in the mood to pretty much talk about anything but last week on the court. We lost two tough games and I think even the tough economic times might be more fun for me to talk about right now than that. But this is a new week and we are excited to play this weekend and get back in the win column.

This is my senior year on the court, but I actually earned my degree back in April, last year. I graduated with an administration of justice degree and a minor in legal studies so this year the pressure has been off as far as getting my degree.

When I was growing up, and even when I came to Pitt, I don't think I thought about the end result in getting my degree. But I am really happy I did it. My mom was so excited and so proud because I am her first child and I have that degree that no one can take away.

At Pitt, Coach B really stresses education too so it made me happy that I could carry on the tradition of all her players earning a degree. I had to work hard for it though. I am so glad the days of being nervous about passing a test so that I could get my degree are over with. But it paid off -- all of it was worth it. We have a great support staff here. Our academic advisor, Jen Tuscano, helped a lot and she's really on top of it.

Now with my degree, I've already had people talking to me back home in Florida about getting a job. When I finish playing basketball, I know that I have a great opportunity to get in to the police academy and eventually become a detective.

Well... that's all for this week!

Tae 

Sorry it's been so long since I have written! It was great to get a few days off over the holidays and I took advantage of it!

I got to spend time with my family and my brother, who I haven't seen in three years. We took a lot of pictures and had fun together. It's great because he gets to see all of my games on TV or on our website and can keep up with me a lot more often.

It was a good break, but it got started off on a bad note with our loss at Florida. So, coming back, we knew we had to take care of business. Western Kentucky is a great team with a lot of history so we knew they would be tough. We came out strong though and won by 43 points! I didn't have a very good game, but that is what's great about our team, we pick each other up when someone is struggling.

With that win, we finally got our 10^th of the season, which means that we are halfway to 20 wins, and the NCAA Tournament. The Big East started up on Sunday with our archrival West Virginia. We knew that it would be a battle for both teams. You can throw out all records when we play each other and they are the only team we play twice in the season.

We pulled out a victory, but they had us on our heels at first. We recovered, but it was hard-fought. I felt like I let my team down in the first half because I had two early fouls and didn't play much so I only scored six points. I knew that for us to have the best chance to win, I had to stay on the floor so I came out in the second half in the zone.

I guess it is my competitiveness that comes out because I didn't want to let my team down. My pride wouldn't let me fail so I came out firing. We ended up with the win and we are 1-0 in the Big East! Until next week!

Tae

Note: Shavonte ended up scoring 34 points in the win over West Virginia and had 28 second-half points, including Pitt's first 15 points of the half.