Sila Shalhoub, a KU graduate student from Syria, watches the final seconds of Saturday's game against Villanova at Jefferson's, 743 Massachusetts St., as the Jayhawks lost 64-59.

Alex Nguyen was like many KU fans heading into Saturday night’s Elite Eight contest against Villanova.

“The road was paved to the championship,” Nguyen said of the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks in the NCAA tourney.

Then, the pothole came. The type that knocks the wheels all the way off.

Kansas University lost to Villanova 64-59 in Louisville, Ky., ending the Jayhawks’ hopes of another national title. Thousands of fans who filled many downtown bars to capacity on Saturday night left quickly and with plenty of expletives, but seemed to produce few other disturbances, according to various reports from officers who were patrolling the downtown area.

“This was the most disappointing loss in a long time,” said Nguyen, who was wearing a shirt from the Jayhawks’ 2003 tourney run for Saturday’s game. “We just weren’t ourselves tonight.”

KU suffered one of its colder shooting nights of the season, and star senior Perry Ellis finished his career with just four points.

And that was “heartbreaking to watch,” said KU alumna Jaky Reyes, who came into town from Topeka to watch the game at Dempsey’s with friend Callie Dunlap. Still, she said getting to see the Jayhawks win their 12th-straight Big 12 Title was a great moment this season.

Approximately 570 people turned Liberty Hall into a smaller version of Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday night. One fan there, Andy Atkinson, traveled nearly 13 hours on two planes from Girdwood, Alaska, to watch the game in Lawrence.

Big, passionate crowd @libertyhall. Lots of love for #kubball here. Some disbelief re: score so far. pic.twitter.com/sYPHljec9g

— Mackenzie Clark (@mclark_ljw) March 27, 2016

Hunter Finch, a graduate student from Los Angeles, said he mainly chose to attend KU for his love of college basketball.

Finishing high school in 2009, he missed the 2008 National Championship experience. Finch has one more year to go at KU and is still hopeful for next year, but he was sad to say the Jayhawks’ graduating seniors won’t have that chance.

“It was still a great season; I just feel bad for Perry (Ellis), Jamari (Traylor), those guys,” he said. “… It’s the highs and lows of March Madness; we were just on the wrong side this time.”

Clad Kueffer was thinking of his younger siblings after the loss — his brother is a manager for the men’s basketball team, and his sister is a manager for the women’s team.

“We are a Jayhawk family, and we are just happy about how well they did as a whole,” Kueffer said. “We can’t be sad.”

KU fan Casey Sader stood on the sidewalk outside a downtown bar slightly shell-shocked after the loss. He said he didn’t have anything to say, then thought of something.

“I won’t be happy until Royals’ opening night,” he said.