Carolina blues? Now UNC them, but soon you may not

SAN ANTONIO -- There is a brilliant and striking photograph in the Sunday edition of the San Antonio Express-News that might best illustrate why North Carolina is making vacation plans and Kansas is still playing in the Final Four.

In the photo there is a loose ball on the floor and four players are diving for it. On the left is North Carolina's Ty Lawson, next to him Kansas' Darrell Arthur, who is next to teammate Darnell Jackson and then next to him is Tyler Hansbrough.

Judging Tyler Hansbrough after the loss, maybe he will come back after all. (AP)

Each player is practically in the air, leaping downwards, and each has at least one hand on the basketball.

The picture stands as almost a symbol for why the Tar Heels lost: the two Kansas players, with pained looks on their faces, hustling, diving, beat the Carolina players to the spot and the ball. Jackson, the Jayhawk, is the only player with two hands on it.

It's a remarkable snapshot, symbolic and telling.

North Carolina wasn't just beaten badly.

They were out-hustled. They were out-muscled. They were out-smarted. The Jayhawks were faster. They were more intense.

The Jayhawks were everything North Carolina was supposed to be.

"Early in the game they were much more aggressive than we were," said North Carolina coach Roy Williams. "We sort of came out a little more casual than we'd like to. They hit us right between the eyes. We probably rushed things a little bit. They just kept hammering. But they were really something early in the game. And then we didn't play the way we wanted to early, to say the least. I guess it's a little like that story tale about the little engine that spent so much trying to get up the hill, it didn't have anything left when it got to the top."

Not sure what that little engine story means but to continue his analogy one engine kicked the other engine's little engine ass.

Now that Carolina is gone, however, what's next for this team?

The biggest question of all: will Hansbrough come back for another year?

Before the Final Four, I would have thought the chances of Hansbrough staying after this season were the same as the great Bill Self getting a decent haircut.