Now that the NCAA tournament is all said and done, with the UConn Huskies winning it all (sorry Butler fans new and old), I have taken a second to look at one thing that seemed to be overlooked the entire tournament.

There was an abnormal amount of crying that was viewable to everyone who was watching. It may be the additional channels that aired the game that made this more evident, or it could just be something that was flat-out obvious. Either way, I believe this was a topic that did not get any attention at all.

Everyone can remember the 2006 tournament, when Adam Morrison was on the court in shambles as his Gonzaga Bulldogs lost in a heartbreaker to the UCLA Bruins. After his crying finished, I remember nothing but hatred coming from everyone, calling him a cry baby and saying that he needed to stop crying.

And now this year, the critics are not fast enough to hop on this hot topic. It seemed like in most every game, when the camera panned to the losing team’s bench in the final seconds, there would be a player in tears.

There is one circumstance in particular that stuck in my head. I am a fan of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, and in the closing seconds of the Bearcats “third round” loss to the eventual champions UConn, there was an image of the Cats’ monster power forward, Yancy Gates, crying on the bench.

When I say crying, I mean bawling. This one instance damn near brought me to tears, and this should be looked at as something that is great and not a sign of weakness.

Here was a player who was suspended earlier in the year for not playing with enough emotion and being lazy, and now he was on national television with clear tears rolling down his face. It came out later that when Gates got pulled out of the game he went up to his fellow big man, senior center Ibrahima Thomas, and told him that it was his “bad” for the loss, and then the water works began. Gates is only a junior, and I cannot wait to see what he can bring next year.

Another player who still has another year to play who was not afraid to hide his emotions was Purdue forward Robbie Hummel. At the end of Cinderella VCU’s upset win against the Boilermakers, there was Hummel sitting on the bench in a suit with water in his eyes.

A knee injury meant Hummel did not play one second the entire year, but was overwhelmed by the emotions of the tournament and his senior teammates’ finishing up their careers on a sad note.

A very strange moment when there was some red eyes was at the end of one of the craziest finishes of a tournament game ever. In the second round, the eventual runner-up Butler Bulldogs played the Pittsburgh Panthers in a game that featured two of the biggest calls ever.

First, Butler guard Shelvin Mack fouled Pitt’s Gilbert Brown at half court with little time left. Brown was sent to the line, where he had a chance to win the game if he made both free throws.

During the timeout before the free throw attempts, in the Butler huddle you could see Shelvin Mack beginning to break down. Brown made the first, but missed the second.

Butler forward Matt Howard then grabbed the rebound and threw up a prayer from 90 feet. Pitt forward Nasir Robinson fouled Howard on the attempt, and Howard made the first free throw to clinch the win. At the press conference, Robinson was crying as well.

Jacob Pullen has been an iconic player for the Kansas State Wildcats, and when he left it all on the court in their loss to the Wisconsin Badgers a media member asked a difficult question in the post-game press conference.

In the middle of his answer, Pullen had to stop talking because the emotions were too much. This prompted Kansas State coach Frank Martin to confront the reporter, asking if that was what he wanted to see.

With no disrespect Mr. Martin, but yes that is exactly what I, and maybe that media member, wanted to see. Those emotions are what make the college game so special.

One older man who showed it is OK to let your emotions run is Princeton coach Sydney Johnson. He was so proud of his players and how they left it all out on the court that he could not bear to hold back the tears, which profoundly flew after the last-second loss to the Kentucky Wildcats.

That passion is evident to his players, and should be a model that even coaches can find the time to drop their guard and let the truth come out.

Through all of these examples, you can easily see the magic of March. There are winners and there are losers, but no matter what there is emotion and always knowing that when that buzzer sounds it could be the end of their season or maybe even the end of their career.

The passion that comes through each player involved in the tournament is something that should bring fans to their feet and through the agony of defeat there are tears that should fill the eyes of everyone.

And lastly, someone please tell Tom Hanks that there might not be crying in baseball, but there is crying in Basketball.