Below the Rim by Steve Lagman, Court Reporter   October 7, 2005   It is fall.  Horizons bleed to orange and yellow and burnt umber.  Pumpkins and multicolored ears of corn adorn porches and steps.  Leaves hang glide silently toward winter resting spots.  Bowl Championship Series computers hum and click with the arbitrary music of college football’s would-be playoff race.  Best of all, the Kohl Center emerges from its summer hibernation to become red and vibrant and full of the life.  Fall is the springtime of basketball.    Truth is, I don’t often write about horizons bleeding, umbers burning and corn adorning, but every now and then I get an irrepressible surge of poetic inspiration that, like a bout of food poisoning, will pass in day or so. Most of you have no idea who I am, or why I am entitled to a by-lined column preempting prime advertising space in a prestigious booster newsletter.  It happened because Debra Hart, Badger Booster Board president, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: write a column for Full Court Press and people might read it.  She didn’t have to ask me a fourth time.  But seriously, and know that I view seriousness like my sixth-grade English teacher viewed sentences starting with prepositions, I think Debra asked me to contribute because she knew it would catalyze the convergence of two passions:  sportswriting and basketball.   Someday I’ll tell you the embarrassing story of how I stumbled into sportswriting, but for now I will divulge my credentials as a basketball passionado:  I play basketball.  I coach basketball.  I have a basketball hoop in my house.  Last month I helped my niece move into Sellery Hall.  I refused to park my car in the open space under a basketball hoop because I thought it sacrilegious.  By the way, passionado is not a real foreign word, but it should be. I have never been paid to coach basketball, except that a kid’s wide grin after making the first basket of his life is as gratifying as any paycheck I ever cashed.  As a player, I am less a star and more a piece of floating space debris–a sub-six-foot role player with the vertical jump of a mailbox, who plays defense as if it were his only skill and looks to pass the ball to those who can actually make use of it.  My sole distinction is having been a reserve during the least successful seasons that Jerry Petitgoue, the winningest coach in Wisconsin high school basketball history, ever coached.    Now that you know my qualifications, I have words of advice to offer for the new season:  Don’t call Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma the Twin Towers.  Bo Ryan hates that.  Instead, call them players of similarly impressive, but embryonically distinct, size. Do listen to Matt Lepay on the radio.  Lepay has has more ways to describe a jump shot than Alando Tucker has air miles.  If I were to go blind tomorrow, it would be comforting to know that Lepay would be there to help me see the games with my ears. Don’t reserve the word athletic for players who can dunk while slicing a bagel with a toothbrush.  I feel the adrenaline of the dunk just like the next fan, but athleticism comes in many flavors:  the rebounder’s battle under the boards, the scrappy reserve’s lunge for a loose ball, the three shooter’s perfect trajectory, the no-look passer's sleight of hand.  As far as I’m concerned, anyone who can run the length of the court without stopping for oxygen is athletic. Do pronounce Alando, a-Lan-doe, not a-Lawn-doe.    Don’t call the Big Ten overrated.  Those who do have overrated IQ’s.  Do stand and cheer at games.  If you do, someone else might too. Don’t call one of Ryan’s players overrated.  As defenders go, Ryan is tenacious.  Do invite your friends to join the Boosters.  Tell them it’s a chance to associate with other really cool people dressed in red clothing.  Tell them they will get free tickets to the Final Four, which is not true.  Tell them they will get the chance to write a sports column, which could be true.   I’ll end with the answer to the question of the month: Are the Badgers going to be good this year?  My standard reply has always been a wishy-washy, never-temp-fate, well, it depends.  This year I just say yes.  Two Big Ten titles, a Big Ten Tourney Championship, four NCAA bids, two Sweet Sixteens, an Elite Eight, and consecutive 25-win seasons.  All that in just four years.  Yes. ___________ The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Badger Basketball Booster Board or the UW Athletic Department, though the author believes those who do not share his views are unenlightened.  The author receives no corporate support for his work, which is why it is not plastered with logos.