I, like you, can't fathom that it's over now. Not yet. The initial shock is still over-riding anything else. It wasn't supposed to end like this, but ya know, that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. We saw how near-impossible it is to win a national championship in 2008; how everything has to come together perfectly and align perfectly for it to happen.

I haven't got much to offer in way of analysis now. We've got the next six months to do that, so here's your thread for the rest of Saturday's games and a place for postgame discussion.*

Also, hats off to Northern Iowa. They played as near flawless as anyone could hope to against such a deep and talented team. You could argue at times that they wanted the loose balls more, were more decisive in their decisions and were never rattled, even when Kansas got it down to one in the final minute. Maryland or Michigan State are going to have their hands full next Friday in St. Louis.

*And, keep it clean and classy, folks. RCT is a classy blog thanks to the way it is run and the members that make up its community. Don't believe me? Check it here. It will stay this way. Warden and/or myself will be around monitoring and weeding out any over-the-top bashing or degrading of Kansas OR Northern Iowa.