My throat hurts from yelling, my hands hurt from clapping. In the first half, the Gophers played about as well as I've ever seen a team play. Janel McCarville is a basketball phenomenon. Look for her to compete for the Wade next year.

When I put on the hat of impartial basketball fan/reporter, I can't help but regret that K State's great season and Nicole Ohlde's incredible career had to end with a game like this. They had home court last year (and blew it), and we had to play Stanford at Stanford last year, but the year-to-year karma doesn't make the system fair. It's unfair for anyone to have to play an NCAA tournament game against the omnipotent Whalen and her 14,000 lunatic worshippers.

But let's be honest -- false pretense of impartiality aside, I'm still just one of the lunatic fans thrilled with the result.

Nutty times for us personally. We had to reschedule our plane tickets 'cause the game was so late. Almost didn't due it, in part because I (the eternal pessimist) didn't think we had a chance against the Cats. Glad we stayed. Eight of us -- mom dad, in-laws, sister, future bro-in-law all in a row cheering hard -- was a great experience.

Plus we bought a house today. Our first. In 'Sota. Coming home to see Janel's senior year. Sara's heading to grad school. I'll be... who knows what. (Oh yeah -- our house has a hot tub. That's for you, Tierney-Webers.)

Tomorrow we head back to SF for our lame-duck time in Cali. Will be back on our own DSL tomorrow. Blogging will be back to normal. Congrats to all the other Sweet 16 teams.