Oh, wait. There is. Scads of it. In the NCAA Tournament, anyway.

Talking the guys, here. The women might be doing it, too, but they aren’t televised where I live.

I have been impressed … or at least seen this often enough over the past 10 days to take note, again … at how many times guys on the losing team burst into tears as the game ends.

A defeat and the sudden end of your season and, perhaps, your career and your hoops hopes and dreams … perhaps tears are not an unreasonable reaction.

Four thoughts here:

–The guys most likely to weep are the biggest and toughest guys on the team. The ones who were still striving for victory five minutes ago. Perhaps that, as much as anything, is jarring and grabs the attention.

–The guys weeping are not embracing the notion. They cannot or will not shut off the waterworks, but they also do not want any-ol’-body to see it. Lots of towels over faces, and turning away from cameras. Some residual “you’re a tough guy and shouldn’t cry” is awake inside their heads, even as their hearts are breaking.

–Bench warmers seem largely immune to tears — perhaps from a sense of detachment that comes from sitting and watching. Maybe because they did not participate enough to have what (they feel) is the right to cry?

–It is by no means universal. Lonzo Ball, UCLA’s feted freshman point guard, was typically matter-of-fact — indeed, businesslike — after the UCLA defeat versus Kentucky. Even as (per the L.A. Times) teammates like A.J. Leaf continued to weep only a few feet away. The poker-faced Lonzo told reporters he would be making himself available for the NBA draft. (“Next!”)

–I noticed something new, tonight. Some of the Oregon players were crying after they won, over Kansas. Tears of joy, I guess. And the coach, Dana Altman, clearly had been weeping, too, before the sideline reporter got him for an on-camera interview.

–I have no recollection of NBA players crying, after their season ends. I’m sure it has happened, but I haven’t made a mental note of it. Not like I have with the college guys.

NBA guys losing? I am far more likely to associate anger with that. So, when do guys stop crying over season-ending losses? Apparently, some time in their early 20s.)

I can vouch for high school players weeping after season-ending defeats. Football players as well as basketball players. It happened often enough that I have clear memories of getting impatient (toe-tapping, glancing at my watch) while waiting, as a jaded reporter on deadline, for weeping guys to get a grip and stop crying so I could interview them.

(Ask questions of a guy actively sobbing? No, I never did that. Do you think I’m a monster?)

Anyway, there is still just enough censure clinging to the idea of adult males weeping over a basketball reverse … that these guys don’t seem to want to be remembered for it.

(Hey, Jonathan Isaac! You were the guy weeping your eyes out at the scorer’s table after Florida State went out in 2017, right? Oh, that wasn’t you?)