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Surprised Winners Take NCAA Bracket Tournament

DAVID GREENE, host:

For the past two weeks, Joe Pearlman was on a run almost as improbable as that of Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU, of course, was the unheralded team that wrecked millions of brackets in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Joe Pearlman was one of only two people out of more than 5.9 million in ESPN.com's bracket tournament who correctly picked VCU, Butler, Connecticut and Kentucky to reach the Final Four.

Joe didn't spend a lot of time on his bracket - about 10 minutes, in fact, he told the New York Times earlier this week. He only jumped in after his 15-year-old son balked at having his dad join his bracket group. Well, last night, the Cinderella story of both Joe Pearlman and VCU came to an end. Joe picked VCU to win it all, and last night VCU lost to Butler.

In the other semifinal, Connecticut held on to edge Kentucky and they'll play Butler in the national championship tomorrow night. Finally, this bracket-busting year will come to a close.

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GREENE: And you're listening to NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

David Greene is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author. He is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, the most listened-to radio news program in the United States, and also of NPR's popular morning news podcast, Up First.