It is as the sports Almighty intended it. For every winner, there is a loser (take that and your nil-nil ties, soccer!). For every Tiger Woods, there is a Detroit Lion. For every Isiah Thomas as a player, there is an Isiah Thomas as a general manager, league owner, boss and suspected poor Parcheezi player. And for every North Carolina with its win for the program's ring, there is a Wake Forest, which now hasn't made the Final Four since Carolina coach Roy Williams entered puberty. Check out FanHouse's breakdown of the winners and losers of the NCAA tournament, other than those five-time national champion Heels.
Whether it was an off night, the size and length of North Carolina's defense bothering the smaller Villanova guards, it all added up to the same thing: a crate load of bricks. When the Wildcats shoot a hideous 5-of-27 on 3-pointers (18.5 percent), they do not have much of a chance. There is not much to decipher.
I'm here at a bar deep in Tar Heel country surrounded by powder blue and tangible energy. The packed masses here hope to see UNC defeat Villanova in this Final Four contest and advance to the NCAA tourney final. Win or lose, I'll be providing on-site updates and commentary. Join me after the jump.
DETROIT -- In an earlier journalistic life, Friday would've been a really big day for me. The reason: the government, each first Friday of the month, issued its most-important piece of economic news -- the unemployment report -- and I covered economics. The report it issued this Friday was an instant Page 1 story, which is what they called the first thing you saw on this thing I worked at forever called a newspaper. Friday's report revealed the recession we're in pushed the unemployment rate to its highest mark in a quarter century, 8.5 percent.
DETROIT -- If Jim Nantz utters even one mushy word about the innocence of the Final Four, please muzzle him. As it is, the games will be contested inside a bubble of greed, a football dome that wraps 72,000 mostly bad seats around a basketball court positioned at midfield. As it is, the NCAA has joined marketing hands with the International Management Group, a firm that represents college coaches and pro athletes and only invites conflicts of interests. As it is, the idea of "student-athletes " playing in an amateur environment is farcical.
Take everything you think you know about this Final Four and toss it in the waste bin with the scrap paper that was once your brackets. The brackets that had Pittsburgh meeting Louisville for the national title. The brackets that were oh so certain Michigan State of the overrated Big Ten would, exactly like IKEA furniture, collapse after one week. The brackets that said Wake Forest was underrated and Arizona's bid was a career achievement award.This tournament was no time for Cinderella, but another year for the kings of college basketball to be crowned in nets. Here, North Carolina's Danny Green tries twine on for size.
Click through for other great photos from Sunday's action.
Joe Murphy, Getty Images
The agony of defeat always shows through even if you try and hide your face. Louisville's Earl Clark buries his head in his jersey as the Cardinals' season ends at the hands of Michigan State.
Andy Lyons, Getty Images
The battle of the big men turned out to be a small matter. Oklahoma's Blake Griffin scored 23 points and pulled down 16 rebounds while North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough managed just eight points and six rebounds in limited time.
Lance Murphey, Reuters
North Carolina's Deon Thompson skies for a rebound but the ball bounces away as Oklahoma's Griffin brothers look on.
Jeff Roberson, AP
Oklahoma didn't get many easy looks at the basket, but when it did, the Sooners made them count. Here Willie Warren tomahawks the ball and his arm through the hoop in a rare second-half breakaway.
Chris Keane, Reuters
Louisville's Terrence Williams was the most dynamic player in the nation over the final two months of the season, but that was until he met Michigan State's defensive clamp Travis Walton. Williams hit just 1-of-7 field goals and scored five points.
Andy Lyons, Getty Images
Edgar Sosa strikes a mid-air pose right out of "The Matrix," but no amount of special effects could keep Michigan State's Goran Suton, left, from a cardinal day. The Spartan senior scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
Jeff Haynes, Reuters
Each time Griffin caught the ball, two North Carolina defenders caught up with him. Despite the double teams, Griffin still managed a fitting farewell in what was likely his last collegiate game.
Matt Slocum, AP
Louisville's defense swarmed the Spartans, but it couldn't keep Suton and the tough-as-nails Spartans from scoring.
Andy Lyons, Getty Images
The Cardinals endless guard rotation couldn't stop Michigan State or Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas, who blows by Jerry Smith here.
Darron Cummings, AP
BOSTON -- If you felt a shiver or tingle Saturday night, a quaking in your solar plexus, it's because you witnessed an epic basketball game, one of the virtuoso classics of March or any month. I mean, did Bill Raftery need oxygen afterward? This was destined to finish with the boldest, loudest exclamation point possible, given the 15 lead changes, palpable tension and Big East-style physicality in the building.