The coming of November used to mean everything to Sharif Chambliss.

Once all the leaves had hit the ground, he'd be back on the court with his jumpers falling like the snow flurries outside.

But this year, it wasn't the same.

While the Penn State men's basketball team was beginning its first season under new head coach Ed DeChellis, its once-prized player was at another school more than 700 miles away. He still has a year of eligibility left, but while the Nittany Lions were playing games, he was watching his new team on television.

It won't be much different today as Chambliss watches in street clothes as his current team and his former team play each other at the Kohl Center when Penn State plays Wisconsin in Madison at 8 p.m.

He's sitting out a season for the first time since age 4 to chase a dream he's had for almost that long. Two of the most tumultuous years of his life are over, and though he wishes his old school well, he left to get the most out of his last year as a college basketball player.

He's still on the court at Wisconsin, his new school and the team he grew up rooting for. He can practice with the Badgers, but he can't play in games or even travel with the team during the first season after his transfer because of NCAA rules. Therefore, every 5:30 a.m. wake-up call, every running and lifting session, and every practice is not for this season, but for some far-off date next November that he can't even pinpoint yet.

Chambliss is a scout team player now, which means he and the rest of the group have to mimic the Badgers' next opponent. He and his teammates have to study the other team's film hard enough to become the players they see on screen. Chambliss plays shooting guard for the practice team, which has helped in the Big Ten season because he has spent the last two years at Penn State guarding those players whose styles he tries to mimic.

If it seems slightly degrading for a two-time All-Big Ten honorable mention to suddenly be on a scout team, consider that Chambliss is paying to do this.

The NCAA prohibits schools from giving financial aid to transfers in the year following their transfer. The Chambliss had not yet used his redshirt season, so the transfer didn't cost him his final year of eligibility. However, it did cost him his scholarship and everything that comes with it.

Chambliss is applying for student loans just like most college students, and he's paying the rest with money he earned at a summer job and money coming from his parents. He also has to cook his own meals because he can't eat with the team at the training table.

"I think it's worth it," he said. "I'm loving what I do again. ... I just had a chance to play the sport that I love, the sport that I know. I'm with the team I'm supposed to be with. Because of all that, I'm really happy again."

A native of Racine, Wis., he's just a one-hour and 45 minute drive from home now. In his three years in State College, more than 10 hours away, he rarely saw his family. Now, he's at the school he always wanted to go to, playing with friends he knew in high school, on a team coming off back-to-back Big Ten championships and five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. The Badgers have a shot at another conference title, and have an NCAA berth basically in the bag. There are hardships, sure, but, compared to what Chambliss was going through earlier this year, this is paradise.

Cherri Chambliss was on the phone in January when she realized how bad things were.

On the line was her son, a young man who could keep a smile on his face through almost any difficulties. A kid who, in her worst moments, would remind her that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.

But the young man she was talking to on the other line was not the same Sharif.

The most prominent part of his personality seemed to be missing.

"I didn't hear the smile in his voice like I usually did," she said. "I could tell his spirit was being broken."

Sharif was telling her that he wanted to come home. He'd had enough, he said. Enough of the mind games. Enough of then-Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn acting like Chambliss couldn't do anything right.

Chambliss said he didn't know what his role was supposed to be. He said he would hear Dunn tell the media that the team needed him to score, then listen to a lecture for taking too many shots.

There are discrepancies there, of course. Dunn, now an assistant coach at West Virginia, denies treating Chambliss wrongfully, and has grown tired of being accused of doing so.

"If Sharif's parents want to keep this going and keep trying to bad mouth me, that's fine," he said. "But none of that happened. If you want to know the story, talk to the players."

Chambliss' teammates don't remember him being singled out. Even small forward Rob Fletcher, the current player with whom Chambliss keeps in closest touch, said he doesn't remember Dunn bearing down on Chambliss.

Whatever the exact situation, Cherri Chambliss knew there had to be some serious problems because Sharif was not a kid whom coaches took issue with.

She also knew how strongly he must have felt because she knew what Penn State meant to him, and also what the school meant to her.

This was the place where her only child went from an 18-year-old boy to a 21-year-old man. The place that had produced so many lifelong friends for Sharif and the family, that nothing could ever degrade the institution and the community's image for them.

But what was going on in the basketball program was too much to bear.

"My son's spirit was being broken," she said. "And I just can't have that."

She told him she would not stand for him leaving the team in the middle of the season, however, because of the commitment he made. If at the end of the season he still felt the same way, she would support him in whatever he did.

So Chambliss stuck it out. He led the team in scoring for the second straight season with 14.7 points per game, but suffered through a second consecutive 7-21 season.

And in the end, he still did feel the same way. He said that he would not play for the team if Dunn remained the head coach, and he asked Curley for his release from the squad when the team returned from the Big Ten tournament on March 17. However, Dunn resigned, and Chambliss waited to make his final decision until a new coach was named.

But during that time he got plenty of phone calls, and made a few himself. Valparaiso contacted him, and his father, Jameel Ghuari got in touch with Wisconsin, setting up a meeting with head coach Bo Ryan, whom he had known since his college days.

After DeChellis took the job at Penn State, the he met with all the players. That meeting complicated Chambliss' decision to transfer.

"After his meeting with Coach DeChellis, he called me and told me, 'Mom, this coach is awesome. I think he's going to do some great things with this program. This is really someone I feel like I could play for,' " Cherri said.

But as much as he liked DeChellis, he knew the losing wouldn't go away instantly. He believed that DeChellis would take the program places eventually, but with a 7-21 team losing one of its best players, point guard Brandon Watkins, what could he really expect to do in a year? Chambliss had one more year left, and after losing 42 games in two years, he wanted to win. He could do that at his home state school.

His dreams of playing in Madison were originally crushed in the summer before his senior year of high school. After the Wisconsin basketball camp that summer, then-coach Dick Bennett used his final scholarship on guard Freddie Owens and told Chambliss that he didn't think the Racine native could play in the Big Ten.

That devastated him, and he used it as motivation throughout his senior year and continued to use it at Penn State. He had a monster final high school season, leading St. Catherine's to a 23-0 record before a loss in the state finals, and earning All-State honors. Then, in four games in his sophomore and junior years at Penn State he averaged 17.2 points per game against Wisconsin, leading the Lions to two of their five Big Ten wins during that period.

But with Bo Ryan now the coach at Wisconsin, there were few at the school that he had to prove wrong. Ryan was at Wisconsin-Milwaukee when Chambliss was a senior, and recruited him then.

Even though he was happy to go to Madison, there was so much to leave at State College. It wasn't easy on his teammates. Though most of them respected his decision, they were still hurt by it.

"We felt like he was going to be one of the leaders, and when he left, we had to look at other people to take that role," former-Penn State forward DeForrest Riley-Smith said, before transferring to Xavier in January. "I was disappointed, but I can't be selfish. It's his life, and he felt the need to go home."

Beyond his teammates, there were also many people outside the program that Chambliss knew he would miss.

Among the most difficult to leave were the Burkes, who had taken Chambliss into their home frequently while he was in State College. He had agreed to help Bruce Burke's son Ryan, now 14, with his basketball skills after meeting the two at the IM Building. He became so close with the family that he spent his Thanksgivings at their home. There was also Sandy Myers, Chambliss's academic advisor, who became much more than that. She became his confidant, listening when he needed to talk about more than just his grades.

Cherri didn't even realize how important her son had become to the community until after the team's postseason banquet when a booster stopped him on the street, told Chambliss how much he would miss him, hugged him and cried.

But since he removed himself from Happy Valley, his transition to Wisconsin has been easy. Chambliss already knew several players from his high school days. The rest of the squad gravitated toward him early on, as well.

"It's like everyone has the same mind on this team," Chambliss said.

Now that he's comfortable, Chambliss finds himself in a good situation for next year. With Owens graduating, there is a guard spot open for next season.

However, he can't expect his laurels to carry him into that spot on their own. Ryan has made it clear to Chambliss that his 14.7 points per game over the last two seasons mean nothing now.

And when he does finally get back on the court next year, he could have a tremendously talented group on the floor with him, including Devin Harris and forwards Alando Tucker and Mike Wilkinson. All three averaged double digits in points last season. McDonald's All-American Brian Burke will also be active after redshirting this season.

It's a team that could contend for a national championship. That is still just a dream now, and it is pointless to even attempt to predict what could happen between now and March 2005. But just having the dream after two years of little hope is worth all of the scout team practices and student loan applications.

"He's got an opportunity to do something he always dreamed about doing," Ghuari said. "And I know that dreams cost -- some more than others."