So the confetti that fell will end up in a landfill and not on some Gonzaga entrepreneur’s eBay page. So Nigel Williams-Goss’ No. 5 won’t adorn the clocktower for the next month.

Nothing made much sense in the second half. Foul calls stopped the game’s flow in its tracks and left key players on both teams in foul trouble. Perimeter shooting – excellent by Gonzaga in the first half, poor by North Carolina – went south for both teams. For that matter, shots in the paint were missing the mark.

What could have been. Gonzaga University could have been national champions, if only for, well, for a lot of things.

Nigel Williams-Goss came to the interview room with red eyes. He made it through one question before choking up. Gonzaga and Williams-Goss aren’t used to losing, and coming up short in a winnable game on college basketball’s biggest stage brought raw emotion to the surface.