Poor guys.

J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison scored more points than any other players this season. And whaddya know, both their teams lost Thursday night. But rather than game-winning shots or celebrations by LSU or UCLA, the lasting images of Duke and Gonzaga's losses could be two stars doing impressions of Evelyn Gardner in A League of Their Own. ("There's no crying in NCAA tournaments!")

Redick and top-seeded Duke were gumboed by LSU while Morrison and Gonzaga let a freshman with three words in his last name steal the win from the Zags.

Granted, I'd cry too if I had a 17-point lead that eventually crumbled after Luc Richard Mbah a Moute's winning basket came off a turnover with 10 seconds to go in the game. Mbah a Moute, who is from Cameroon (I've never been there, I surmise it's a delicious country made from chocolate and coconut) made the winning layup to lead UCLA past the Bulldogs 73-71.

As for the Duke/LSU game ... well, I didn't see it. But judging from the box score, it was a relatively close game despite the eight-point margin of victory.

The Duke game was played earlier in the evening and when the clock struck zero, Duke's haters — comparable in size to that of the New York Yankees or Chelsea FC — immediately began dancing in the streets. Instantly the obligatory "Duke sucks" headline scrolled across Fark.com. And North Carolina fans likely stormed Durham and toppled a giant gold statue of Mike Krzyzewski.

The shot of Redick crying was just icing on the cake.

But when Gonzaga and Morrison — arguably the co-player of the year along with Redick — fell in the tournament on the same night, Morrison fell to the floor once their clock struck zero. He was rightfully hard on himself — in the last two-and-a-half minutes, he missed his final three shots in a time span where UCLA scored the final nine points of the game.

Then the mustachioed Morrison pulled his jersey over his head and put his tummy to the hardwood. And we all thought, "Wow, this tournament is rough on all the superstars. They really care." Either that or, "Great, now I pick Bradley to win and they finally lose."

You're damn right these kids care about this tournament. In all the attention that the Cinderella teams received, Gonzaga's program is still a relatively new powerhouse, and they have never made the Final Four. As for Duke, they may have the world's largest bulls-eye on their chests, but none of those roster players had won a national championship.

Sure, both players earned individual achievements and awards, but right now all Duke and Gonzaga have is what the guy from that Cingular commercial has: March Sadness.

(And oh by the way, the Texas/West Virginia game was pretty good too.)