The greatest four days of the year are over. It doesn’t get any better than nonstop basketball for 96 hours, but just because it’s over doesn’t mean we have to move on.

With a nod to the Sweet Sixteen next weekend, here are 16 notes, thoughts and observations in no particular order from the first and second rounds:

1. On Thursday morning, ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb was with his wife for a planned cesarean section to have his first son. Thursday afternoon he was on air breaking down the first round. Now that’s dedication.

2. My worst nightmare: 12 seeds were 3-1 against 5 seeds. The one defeat? Northern Iowa’s five-point loss to Purdue.

3. The two best games of the first round came at the very end with simultaneous overtime thrillers. It took a while but those games were well worth the wait.

4. I was completely wrong about Arizona. The Wildcats clearly belong in this tournament.

5. Downtown Minneapolis has so many sky bridges that a person would never have to step outside, which is just awesome.

6. Sherron Collins on Cole Aldrich’s defense: “He always hollers when he’s coming. It’s a little goofy sound. It’s just a, ‘U-Ahh.’ I don’t really know, I just know he’s coming and I get out of his way.”

7. North Dakota State’s Ben Woodside and Dayton’s Chris Wright are absolutely amazing players for completely different reasons.

8. I’m disappointed neither of the bands of USC’s opponents learned any Lil’ Romeo songs (Romeo, aka Percy Miller, is a freshman for the Trojans).

9. One seeds will never lose until the committee starts rewarding small schools with 11 and 12 seeds and putting the last teams in as 16 seeds.

10. Dream national championship game: Connecticut and Syracuse go to seven overtimes.

11. Why did Western Kentucky forget to play defense in the final 10 seconds against Gonzaga?

12. I hate the Big 10 — especially since it doesn’t seem to know how many teams are in its conference — but even I’ll admit that Michigan State and Purdue are Final Four contenders.

13. Bill Self on Cole Aldrich’s return to Minnesota: “He’s different. I asked him how many tickets he needed and he said five. I said, ‘Five? Cole you’ve at least got a couple friends.’”

14. Vitamin Water has advertising on lockdown. We were forced to hide all other brands (including my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup) and put all liquids (including coffee) into Vitamin Water Revive cups.

15. This is a very chalky tournament — all of the 1, 2 and 3 seeds are still alive. Maybe that will set-up great matchups, but I think it’s a bummer.

16. Marquette got screwed. I have no problem with Kim English “pinch-shooting” for J.T. Tiller, but if you’re going to call overstepping the baseline at the end then call it the whole game. There’s heartbreak in every tourney game, but I’m still hurting for Marquette’s Lazar Hayward.

— — Edited by Liz Schubauer