photo by: Ashley Hocking

Kansas basketball fans walk on Massachusetts Street after the Jayhawks played in the Final Four on Saturday, March 31, 2018. The city closed the street to traffic and parking temporarily. KU lost to Villanova, 95-79.

The combination of a Jayhawk defeat and the arrival of sharply colder weather made for a tame Final Four postgame downtown atmosphere Saturday.

Massachusetts Street, from Sixth Street to 11th Street, was closed to traffic from 4 a.m. to midnight Saturday with barricades preventing parking along the stretch. The closure was in anticipation of a large spontaneous street celebration, such as the one that occurred March 25 after KU’s Elite Eight victory against Duke.

Saturday’s Jayhawk 95-79 loss to Villanova made for a much different postgame mood.

“I can report no major incidents,” Sgt. Mike Cobb, of the Lawrence Police Department, said Sunday. “I would describe it as calm and subdued. When the game ended, everyone basically went home because it was too cold to stay on the street very long.”

Cobb said he and many of the other 200-plus officers stationed on or near Massachusetts Street were sent home before midnight because of the calmness downtown. The police department only issued one citation during the game, which was for trespassing, and made one DUI arrest, he said.