Glen “Big Baby” Davis

• Played running back for University High School, but didn’t like all the contact.

• Portrayed James Brown in his 6th grade talent show at Capitol Middle School.

• Took a ballet class in high school to “chase a girl.”

Everybody’s watching Big Baby.

Just as they did in 2006, but not as much as they will in 2007, when Glen Davis turns 21 on the first day of the year.

And why not?

This effervescent soon-to-be multimillionaire is the king of the court for LSU. He’s a future NBA lottery pick who led the Tigers to last year’s Final Four, and is so popular nationwide that LSU has had more requests and visits from out-of-town media than it did for Shaquille O’Neal.

To wit: It’s mid-November and LSU has just finished playing an exhibition game, one in which Davis leaped for a rebound, had his legs cut out from under him and took a nasty spill on the floor, leaving him with, no doubt, one of the sorest derrieres in Baton Rouge.

But in that game, a 53-point blowout victory for the Tigers, Davis twice dived for loose balls with reckless abandon—once before the big crash, once after—and through it all, he never lost the smile and exuberance fans have come to expect from the All-American known as Big Baby.

“When your best player gets injured and keeps playing and your best player’s diving on the floor for a loose ball, it makes my job easier to challenge the other players to do the same thing,” says coach John Brady.

Davis is a coach’s dream. He’s also a fan favorite and a media darling as much for his basketball prowess as the fact that the guy is always in a good mood.

Always. And if you’ve even followed the junior’s stellar career only peripherally, you know he has survived a lot, including a mother with a drug problem and growing up in a tough part of town.

“Throughout my life and the things I’ve experienced, I’ve encountered a lot of negative things, and that’s basically what I’ve seen the majority of my life,” Davis says. “And I don’t like that feeling.

“So I try to ignore the negative things and always be in a good mood because who wants to be mad? Who wants to be sad? Who wants to feel like that? I just try to have a good time and try to ignore the drama and conflict.”

Davis is listed this season at 6-foot-9, 289 pounds. For him, that’s svelte, considering he enrolled at LSU from University High a little more than two years ago weighing in the mid-300s. Big Baby was big.

He credits divine guidance, help from some responsible, caring adults and, in a way, luck for being the person he is today.

“I was blessed to go in the right direction. I had a blindfold throughout my life and went in the right direction. From where I came from, and my peers and my family problems, I just want better for myself.”

And he’s getting there with a smile on his face.

“I try to lead through action because I don’t want my teammates to think, ‘He’s this All-American, and he’s too cute to do this or too cute to do that.’ I want them to have the feeling that feeling this guy will put himself on the line, and he’s sacrificing his body for the team, and feed off that positive thing.”