Chapel Hill, N.C. — Welcome to a town marked by what could have been.

Early Saturday evening, the streets buzzed with the prospect of an NCAA men’s basketball championship.

But from late Saturday night on, as senior Barbie Hutton put it, “You could feel a cloud over the entire UNC-Chapel Hill community.”

The Top of the Hill restaurant features an outside deck which overlooks the intersection of Franklin and Columbia streets. When UNC wins a big game, thousands flock to this crossroads to jump over bonfires, climb lampposts and sing and dance like madmen.

When North Carolina met Kansas in the Final Four, Tar Heel fans anticipated such a celebration.

But what could have been was not to be, and by the time Kansas emerged victorious, all one saw from Top of the Hill was the falling of rain on shell-shocked streetwalkers below.

There were no bonfires or chants or dances. There was only cold, wet and emptiness.

“The weather was fitting,” Hutton said.

The feeling, she said, “was a combination of disbelief and depression – No one was happy. No one could find a positive thing to say.”

Hutton watched the game at a friend’s apartment and, in what she called an uncommon occurrence, didn’t go out on a Saturday night.

Neither did student Jeff Einfalt, who said about the Tar Heels’ play: “We never even gave ourselves a chance.”

Hendersonville native Daniel Feagin said, “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Feagin had to work during the game, but his boss – a big fan – played the radio broadcast over the back room speaker while Feagin toiled.

“I’ve gratuitously avoided all forms of sports media today,” Feagin said, “as I probably will for the next week.”

According to Einfalt, “I don’t think the outcome was indicative of who was the best team because they came out more focused, we were too lax and never got into our rhythm because we went down 28 points.”

Kansas: 40. UNC: 12. If you told Carolina fans before the game that that score would appear on the first half scoreboard, they would have questioned your sanity. But Kansas really did open up a 28-point first-half lead, and it hit the Tar Heel faithful like a hammer to the chest.

“It was embarrassing,” junior biology major Allison Matthews said. “Seemed like our team didn’t show up. … All I could do was shake my head because it didn't even look like us on the court.”

“No words could describe how shocked we were,” Hutton said. “It was like we weren’t watching the UNC we know.”

Mo Walker, who works at the Ram’s Head Rec Center on campus, said, “It was very disheartening to see our team not executing on offense the way it had been all month … It was like watching a middle school team play a college team.”

One look around Top of the Hill might as well have been a look around a funeral parlor. People hung their heads and muttered to the floor.

Then UNC mustered all of the comeback it could, eventually coming within four points of Kansas midway through the second half.

Now, Top of the Hill became a zoo. People stood on chairs and hollered to the heavens.

Hutton called it “really exciting” and said, “I had a feeling we would be able to do that. I went from almost crying to really happy, but the whole time I was still nervous.”

But Kansas regrouped, went on a mini-run, and put the game away for good.

“Once we got it within four,” Hutton said, “Kansas got on that run and we never recovered; we started to play how we had played at the beginning.”

After the game, people acted normally at various Franklin Street locales, but “normal” contrasted starkly with what could have been: extraordinary.

And all of them felt it.

“If we won, the whole atmosphere would have been different,” Walker said. “I’m under the impression that people went out simply because they were already on Franklin Street, or to drown their sorrows. Everyone expected us to win and wanted to be on Franklin Street before the actual mayhem ensued, so they didn’t have to run there.”

The shot at a national championship vanished into the night. For many, reality probably has not yet set in, but Monday will offer them countless reminders. After all, the national championship game airs at night.

Hutton’s television will remain off during the game. Matthews said, “I will be pulling for Memphis – just out of spite.”  Walker hopes the team that beat North Carolina “gets its butt whupped.”

And sophomore Katie Mullis, representing how many might feel, said she plans on watching the game, but that it will be much different with North Carolina in absentia. “I won't be going out to watch the game, and I won't be partying,” she said. “It won’t be exciting. It will be like watching a regular game.”

In short, it won’t be what it could have been.