The dream for Brittany Remmey will most likely end just as quietly as it did the first time around. There will be no buzzer beater. The walk-on guard won't have some awe-inspiring assist.

It will most likely end along the sideline, warm-up sweatshirt having never left her body after just one year on the team.

That was expected with the one-year deal. Last Wednesday was not, as she pulled up lame at practice, all but ending her career. It was nothing serious -- just a bad time to pull a hamstring.

Remmey had grown up wanting to be a Penn State guard. She can rattle off the list of greats just like any diehard fan. She wanted to be one of them, and in a way she was, so the physical pain she endures now is worth the opportunity that had not been offered to her back in high school.

The aspiration to play for Lady Lions was first curtailed on an 8.5x11-inch piece of paper over years ago -- the letter informing her Penn State did not have a scholarship for her. But the magnitude of the letter was much larger than its 12-point font, as its delivery signaled the exact moment she decided not to play collegiate ball.

She told her family that she'd prefer to give up basketball than to enroll at another school. Letters containing scholarships were thrown aside. Ivy league schools could not measure up to what she'd grown up with. Harvard, to her, was just not the same.

There's just too much family history. Her parents went to Penn State, and her grandfather was an undersized offensive lineman that arrived at University Park the same year as Joe Paterno (1950). He then opted for a military career following graduation instead of glory on Sundays, but then again it was a different time.

"That was a time when a man knew he owed two years of his life to Uncle Sam," Don Barney, her grandfather, said. "I got questionnaires from several professional teams, but I never got back to them."

Remmey may have been possessed by the same subconscious duty to come to Penn State, but Penn State basketball coach Rene Portland has a duty of her own.

Portland is not in the business of making every little girl's dream come true. There are only so many roster spots. Her job is to scout the best talent available and put the best five players on the floor at a given time. At the time, the best talent at guard was Jennifer Harris.

Portland said she does not consider bringing in a two-guard without at least 2,000 career points. Remmey did not eclipse the 1,000-point plateau until her junior season, after Harris got the offer.

With Harris and two others off the team following last year's season, Portland held open tryouts. Remmey, president of the Penn State women's basketball club, was encouraged to try out by Linda Strauss, program director for women's basketball and advisor to the club team.

"I worked really closely with her and she told me about it and we have this list and she's like, 'Oh, I'm going to put this announcement on there,' " Remmey said.

Nine others showed up, mostly from the club team, but Remmey was the only one to see it through the tryout period to a two-week trial session with the team.

Once Remmey made the team, it was too surreal, as was the first time walking onto the practice floor. She had been in the stands for so long. The hardwood had to be an illusion, and the result was a blur.

"Not really any particular memory sticks out, but I do remember walking out to my first practice ... I remember walking out the first time in the Bryce Jordan Center court and Amanda [Brown] was there shooting and I was like, 'Amanda. Crazy,' " Remmey said. "Like I feel like I shouldn't be here. This is something I've always dreamed of, walking onto the court."

Portland and the now-redshirt sophomore talked about the role she was going to assume. Playing time would be limited, an understatement. She has only seen 35 minutes of play in seven games this season and scored just 11 points.

For someone who wants to coach, which she has been doing since she was in the 10th grade, that has been enough. She describes the opportunity to play for Portland as a "win-win" situation regardless of the lack of minutes.

"I've learned so much from these coaches and from these girls that playing time isn't exactly the important thing to me, it's just the learning aspect," she said.

So when she sits toward the end of the bench just 12 minutes into the game, the only player yet to play -- as happened against Michigan on Feb. 2 -- it's what she expected. Her role was confined to the practice court, a fact she was content with. That was part of the arrangement.

This was a one-year deal. After the season, Remmey's role would be re-evaluated. All signs seem to point that this will be her one and only season as a Lady Lion.

Portland said nobody has made a concrete decision, but the writing would seem to be on the wall. Tyra Grant and Meggan Quinn, two top guards and heralded prospects, have already signed letters of intent to Penn State, meaning there may not be a viable reason to keep Remmey around.

"She's a fill-in this year, that's how she looks at it. They're not really playing her. They really just wanted somebody to fill out for practices or if they foul out," Valerie Remmey, her mother, said.

That's just fine. The opportunity to earn a letter is more than she ever could have asked for following the initial rejection three years ago.

This opportunity may have catapulted Remmey into her ultimate dream. The girl that was once recruited by the likes of Lehigh and Dartmouth is a kinesiology major, hoping to become a gym teacher and ultimately a basketball coach.

With this one year under the tutelage of Portland, she's been able to understand to become a student of the game, taking notes of the Xs and Os.

"I remember at first being so overwhelmed," Remmey said. "There have been so many things I've learned from them. Just like footwork. I can't even describe the things I learned, for defense, on offense."

Remmey has been coaching summer leagues for a number of years now and has seen considerable success, but this single season could open up new avenues. With 21 of Portland's former players coaching at least at the high school level, it's another Penn State legacy she would love to continue.

Still, she's 21 years old and has plenty of days left in her before she's physically forced to hang up her basketball shoes. And, every now and then, every dog gets thrown a bone, and for Remmey, it has come in garbage time.

With time winding down, and Remmey again the only player yet to have checked in, this time against Illinois on Feb. 12, Portland gave her the nod. It was just her third home game of the season.

So she waited, patiently squatting under the scorer's table for the next stoppage of play. Whistle blew. Horn sounded. No. 44 was on the court. Her grandparents were elated.

"We get very excited and go, 'There she goes, there she is,' " Barbara Barney, Remmey's grandmother, said.

Surely, the offense would run around her, not through her, but when point guard Brianne O'Rourke spotted the walk-on standing in the corner in transition, she got the pass. She set her feet and released.

The referee raised his hands, signaling the 3-pointer was in fact good, and not some trick of the mind. It was Remmey's first conversion from behind the arc this season.

Barney insists he never doubted it as it left her hand. He's seen her shoot in warm-ups all year and rarely sees a miss, regardless of where she spots up on the floor.

"That was great. Brittany was exactly between us and the hoop and it was good all the way," he said. "Nothing but net."

No, it wasn't a buzzer beater -- the inconsequential basket was the final one of a blowout 78-52 win. Close enough. The memory resides next to the one with her first collegiate points, which came Dec. 19 against Alabama A&M. After all, there have only been a handful of baskets in between, so the recollections cannot be far apart.

"I remember exactly what play it was and exactly where I was and how it went in," Remmey said, reliving the moment once more.

The game against the Fighting Illini will be the last time she sees the court this year, a rather unheralded ending to a not-so-storybook season. But she'll take it, should it be her last time on the court.

Conditioning had been her weak point, not her shot. Working through the two year's worth of accumulated rust, her legs finally had enough one day before the team's final road game at Wisconsin.

After she pulled her hamstring, she kept running, not wanting to fall behind her teammates -- just as she had when she broke her nose at an earlier practice and continued to lift until somebody realized something was wrong.

However far the Lady Lions go into the Big Ten Tournament, she will most likely remain sitting in the blue sweatshirt taking in another game.

And it's a dream come true.