If you have children, and especially if you have more than one, I’m going to share something that you already know.

Every child matures at his or her own rate.

Whether it’s walking or talking or potty training, you just can’t rush a kid’s growth. Oh sure, you may try to facilitate his development, help him along, but ultimately the breakthrough is going to happen on his time, when he’s good and ready.

It’s no different with a team, particularly a young team. The kids are taller and the lessons more complex, but the premise holds true. No matter how badly you want the team to succeed or how much you push the players, they’re going to grow up at their own speed.

But take heart, Baylor Lady Bear fans. Your girls’ days of taking teetering, unstable baby steps are over. They’re finally walking on their own.

“I thought our babies grew up tonight,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said following Monday night’s 65-63 win at No. 12 Texas A&M.

Pulling out a road win in a stressful, back-and-forth rivalry game against a top-15 team is a definite sign of growth. But the evidence actually began sprouting up a game or two before that.

It was almost as if something clicked with Baylor’s younger players, because suddenly, they got it. Passes were crisper. Shots were smoother. Everything was less ragged.

“We go to Oklahoma and we have a shot at the buzzer to win that game, and we go to overtime and lose,” Mulkey said. “And I said to the kids after the Iowa State game, you are playing and peaking and doing things at the right time. I think you saw that (against A&M).”

All season long, Mulkey has pleaded for patience when it came to the expectations surrounding her team, which features about seven underclassmen in the rotation. If I had a nickel for every time Mulkey said, “I don’t know how we were picked No. 1 in the Big 12 (preseason) poll” I’d be able to treat the coach to a nice steak dinner. (Note to self: Start bringing tip jar to press conferences).

Patience isn’t a virtue natural to most fans — or sportswriters, for that matter. Even as an impartial observer, I’ve still thought to myself on several occasions this season, “So-and-So should be further along than she is.”

But that type of thinking lacked perspective. Turns out Mulkey was right — even during the Lady Bears’ 13-game winning streak to close out nonconference play, she could sense they needed more seasoning, more time to grow.

Even the most fully developed of Baylor’s freshmen, standout post Brittney Griner, is far from a finished product. Griner took a flying leap forward as a rebounder in the win over A&M, and showed the kind of “just give me the dadgum ball” attitude you want to see out of your best player in the waning moments of the game. Despite being fronted by the A&M defense, she would not be denied on Baylor’s final possession, ferociously soaring to snag a lob pass from Kelli Griffin before dropping in the game-winning layup.

“Actually, when Kelli was coming down, I was thinking about something the coaches had said,” Griner said. “‘When the game’s on the line, do you want to be the player that takes the shot, or do you want to be the player that gives it up and doesn’t want the pressure?’ I wanted to take that on.”

Of course, just because you’ve learned to walk doesn’t mean you’ll never fall again. The Lady Bears will undoubtedly still slip up, be they temporary moments of regression or more prolonged stretches of dormancy.

And they’ll very likely lose again. Only one NCAA tournament team doesn’t end its season in defeat, and if that one team isn’t Connecticut, it would be a more shocking outcome than if this column won a Pulitzer.

But the Lady Bears are maturing — that much is clear.

They grow up so fast? Not always.

The really important thing is that they grow up right.

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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