The NCAA Tournament is a two-headed monster, simultaneously benevolent and cruel, blissful and soul-crushing. It can snap at your throat just as quickly as lifts you on its shoulders. In a second, it turns agony into ecstasy and back again, as it did for UCLA on Thursday night against Gonzaga.

Just two years after Jalen Suggs delivered the dagger of all daggers — and just 6 seconds after Amari Bailey bellied a blade of his own into Gonzaga’s gut — Julian Strawther pulled up from the “S” in the March Madness logo and knocked out UCLA once and for all. Final score: Gonzaga 79, UCLA 76.

The Bruins had rallied back from a frozen streak the likes of which they had not been dealt in a sensational season, and just when they made believers out of the doubters, Strawther was there to send UCLA into an even colder offseason. Their heart and soul is leaving. Their star freshman likely, too. Mick Cronin faces a rebuilt roster for the first time in his UCLA tenure.

They call it March Madness for a reason, because it is liable to cause psychosis just as quickly as elation.

*****

The entire basketball world saw UCLA running out of steam, but I was sure I could see it billowing out of Cronin’s ears. Watching his Baby Bruins get bullied on the boards by a veteran Bulldogs squad, Cronin’s eyes bulged. Gonzaga would finish with nearly as many offensive rebounds as UCLA had defensive rebounds, a 50-26 overall advantage, maybe the worst ever by a Cronin-led team, enough to make him breathe lava.

And that was just the offensive glass, one of only a handful of things to go wrong for the Bruins in their driest spell of the season.

After Jaime Jaquez Jr. dripped in a layup with 12 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game, giving UCLA a 7-point lead, the Bruins seemed to be in the midst of their second big counter-punch of the game. When Gonzaga started to punch back from a 10-point deficit midway through the 1st half, cutting the UCLA lead back down to 2, the Bruins landed a body blow with a 15-4 run, going into the half up 13. Now the Bulldogs were surging once more, trimming a 51-38 UCLA lead down to 54-50, but Jaquez’s layup followed a Dylan Andrews 3-pointer, and the Bruins kept the Zags at bay.

Then the Bruins went one minute without a basket. Then two. Then three and four. Five, six, seven. Then eight and nine. And 10.

UCLA’s next field goal came exactly 11:14 later, on another Jaquez layup, now with the Bruins trailing by 9, 72-63. A 34-12 Gonzaga run. Enough to drown a team.

“A lot of open shots that didn’t go down,” Cronin said. “There’s no hindsight. Wide open shots. And multiple times we got fouled, no call. Dave and Tyger didn’t make a basket in the second half. They had good looks. And Jaime got murdered on about four layups.”

*****

All along, at every twist and turn, every UCLA turn and every drought, there was Drew Timme.

Timme left and Timme right. Timme up and Timme under. Timme from down low and Timme from deep.

Maybe the best player in NCAA Tournament history playing the best game of his NCAA Tournament history. Early in the game, even as UCLA built its early lead, Timme kept the Zags in the game. His final line — a March Madness personal-best of 36 points on 16-of-24 shooting, with 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, becoming the 1st player in college hoops history with 10 20-point Tournament games — does not come close to describing his impact.

This is just what Cronin worried about. And just what UCLA fans were scared of when Adem Bona walked onto the T-Mobile Arena floor in street clothes on Thursday night, four days after his big return against Northwestern in UCLA’s Round of 32 win. Bona only played 20 minutes in the win, but he played his patented stellar defense and went 3-for-3 from the field. He suffered a setback in the game, though, and his shoulder ultimately was just too sore to go.

“He wasn’t able to play,” Cronin said tersely.

“Too much pain?,” he was asked.

“He wasn’t able to play. If I wanted to elaborate, I would elaborate,” Cronin responded.

And so it goes.

And so, UCLA goes.

*****

Of course, one of college basketball’s great rivalries would have to come down to one shot. Or, rather, one shot after one shot.

Despite a drought that would have buried a lesser team, UCLA fought back.

Nearly keeping up with Timme shot for shot, Jaquez hoisted the Bruins on his back like he has so many times before. The Pac-12 player of the year had 8 points in the game’s final 74 seconds, including two and-ones, helping put UCLA in position to take advantage of Gonzaga’s missed free throws and a crucial last-minute turnover. And Bailey did indeed take advantage, draining a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left on an assist from Tyger Campbell, who once again had a great game with 14 points, 9 assists and 1 turnover.

That was supposed to be it. The coup-de-grace.

Strawther, the Las Vegas local from Liberty High, had other plans. So did Few, who drew it up so that Strawther would get the last shot, and not Timme.

“Have you not been watching our program? Do you not know what we’re about? Like, that’s not what time it is at UCLA. There’s a lot of good teams out there this year but a lot of them got whacked by 20 on multiple nights. Not us, not us,” Cronin said. “(It) took a great player, a 32-foot shot, and a great player in Drew Timme and a really tough whistle to send us home, despite everything we’ve been through.”

The shot was a bit deep and it was a bit bold and it was a bit precocious. Maybe even a little preposterous.

But it was good. And Gonzaga moves on for what should be another classic against UConn in the Elite Eight.

“It’s moments like that you can’t make up,” Strawther said. “Those are literally the moments you dream of. To even make a shot like that in March Madness and just to be back home in Vegas is like the cherry on top. But words can’t describe how proud I am of just our team and our resilience. I mean nothing was going our way. We weren’t playing our brand of basketball at all through that whole first half. We flipped that switch. And there’s not a lot of teams in the country who could bond together and make a run like that.”