Now that the Tigers' shot at a trophy has come and gone (but much later than usual this year), I am literally champing at the bit for basketball to start in earnest. (Yes, literally -- I wish my wife didn't make me wear this thing.)

I was never really into sports as a kid. While the other guys traded baseball cards and tackled each other on the dirt, I stayed off to the side, talking with my best friend Poley. This wouldn't have drawn a second glance, were Poley not a six-inch stuffed penguin I carried everywhere until I was in fifth grade. Naturally, the boys wanted nothing to do with Poley, but the girls really liked him, and befriending them so young set me up for two possible scenarios in life:

1. I'd grow up to be a sensitive, caring man who understood what women really wanted; or
   
2. I'd be gay.

Fortunately for my beat-up-ability quotient, in middle school I started to grow. As I got bigger and more coordinated, and could no longer be mercilessly brutalized by kids twice my size, I found sports fun. While I enjoyed baseball, archery, and the game that let me nail my best friend in the eye with a Nerf football on purpose, my favorite quickly became basketball.

Don't worry -- this post isn't me reminiscing about how we could've won State if the coach had just put me in. I only played one year of organized ball, in a rec league, and my coach was so terrible that we would have lost even if he didn't put me in. Yeah, I wasn't very good. I could make a lay-up on the hoop in my driveway if nobody was guarding me and no one was looking and the wind was just right. But I kept watching the game, and I kept playing against my friends, and I got better. I'm no LeBron, but now I can dribble, rebound, pass, and even score sometimes.

My true involvement with hoops is as a fan. I played in the pep band for nine years, through high school and college, and almost single-handedly turned both organizations into loud, proud rooting machines. At one point, the mascot told me she could hear me yelling in the locker room. Just think of me as one big athletic supporter.

Now, I pick my passion as an individual. The NBA has started up, but those guys are one-on-one robots with minimal sense of team. Give me college hoops any day. The women's game is actually my favorite, and it's not just because they're girls in shorts running around. (That doesn't hurt, though.) College women play the most fundamentally sound basketball -- while it may not be explosive (Candace Parker is the exception, not the rule), it's crisp, it's solid, it's competitive, and it's a good way to learn about the sport. Plus I can get a season ticket for what it would cost me to get into one Magic game.

The games won't start in earnest for another couple of weeks, though. Until then, I guess I'll practice my lay-ups. Poley will spot me.