This Fan Cannot Tell a Lie -- He Was Thinking George Washington

Only four out of 3 million entrants in one national NCAA men’s basketball tournament competition picked all the teams in this year’s Final Four.

But at least one of them -- Russell Pleasant, a 46-year-old software test engineer from Bellevue, Neb. -- did it on accident.

He picked the longest shot left in the field, 11th-seeded George Mason, because he got it confused with the team from George Washington that he had watched in a couple of games during the regular season.

“I was filling in my bracket on the job and trying to do it pretty quick,” Pleasant told the Associated Press. “When I got done, I said, ‘Was that George Mason or George Washington?’ ”

In this case, the wrong George was the right George.

George Washington lost in the second round to Duke. George Mason has toppled three of the last six NCAA champions on its way to Indianapolis.

Pleasant, who entered the ESPN.com contest, isn’t the only new George Mason fan.

There’s also Scott Herschmann, a 31-year-old equity and bond trader from Englewood, N.J., who while vacationing in Las Vegas on March 18 put $1,000 on George Mason -- at 100-1 odds -- to win the tournament.

“It was a ridiculous overlay,” he told Forbes.com. “It was an outside bet, but I had to jump at it.”

Herschmann’s wager came after the Patriots upset Michigan State in a first-round game. Before the tournament started, George Mason was as much as a 500-1 longshot on some betting lines.