Mighigan governor Jennifer Granholm did a nice thing by bringing her two basketball-playing daughters to KC to watch the Spartans, but she almost caused one of the worst jinxes in women's basketball history.

She was interviewed when MSU was up 11 with about 10 minutes left. She said things like "it's going great, we are so excited to reach the next level, we can't wait for next weekend when we'll be in Indy..."

The lead vanished almost immediately. Her political future teetered on the edge. If the Spartans lost, Granholm would surely and deservedly absorb the blame.... but they didn't.

Fan favorite Kristin Haynie was once again close to triple-double territory, with 20, 7, and 7. Shimek was huge. Bowen had a bad night, but she hit the back-breaker with 29 seconds left. "She is so clutch," said Roehrig.

The Final Four eluded Stanford again.

"We are just very disappointed with this outcome," said senior Kelley Suminski. "We thought we deserved to be in the Final Four. We had worked so hard and it's just so sad to have this happen."