An endearing new nickname in the ranks of serious basketball is Big Baby. One such is LSU’s 6’9″, 310-pound sophomore Glen Davis, a mighty tough hombre who last night helped power his team to an NCAA tournament victory over top-seed Duke, which probably now thinks of him as Big Brute. Another Big Baby is Los Angeles Lakers’ rookie center Andrew Bynum, a still growing 18 year old who received that moniker from his proud mentor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. A recent story describes how Baby Bynum went mano-a-mano with Shaquille O’Neal, and lived to talk about it.

One other thing can be said about these two toddlers: Big Babies don’t cry.

Which can’t be said about this year’s coddled NCAA cover-boy players of the years, Duke’s J.J. Redick and Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison. When last seen after their teams went down to defeat last night, each was in tears. In fact, Morrison seemed beside himself. Perhaps he was embarrassed by his unproductive performance down the stretch. Or maybe, as with Redick, the sudden cruel end to a long, hard season (and college career) was a bitter pill to swallow. Still, don’t coaches these days warn their men never to come across as big babies?