Virginia Commonwealth University, ranked number 11, turned the college basketball world upside down yesterday, with an upset win over the number one Kansas Jayhawks, earning a trip to the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. VCU now faces Butler, while Kentucky goes against Connecticut. Takeaway sports contributor, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, believes VCU's huge upset and deep journey into the tournament will give the team a huge boost, with top prospects actually considering going to the school.

Butler's homegrown Indiana boy, Gordon Hayward, had just missed a Hail Mary half-court shot, and with that, their Cinderella-Indiana-Hoosier-like run ended with a sad whimper. Duke winning 61-59 was not the storyline that this sports contributor wanted to share with you this fine April morning.

• FINANCE TAKEOUT: As a natural resource, crude oil is arguably the keystone of our entire global economy. It seeps in to the cost of every aspect of our travel, business, development, production and even how we farm our food. New York Times Wall Street and finance reporter Louise Story says that while it’s been an historically tumultuous decade for international oil trade that,  these days, the price of oil is staying relatively still.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Last night UConn took on Florida State University and the University of Kentucky went up against Oklahoma. Sports correspondent Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, recaps last night's women's Final Four, in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

• CONGRESS: President Obama issued 15 recess appointments on Saturday. The procedure allows senior federal officials to be appointed without confirmation from the Senate. Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich explains the procedure, along with the Republican reaction.
• SPORTS: Sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin recaps the weekend's action in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and looks at who's left in the Final Four.

Northern Iowa upset number one-seeded Kansas on Saturday in the men's NCAA basketball tournament. This year's season has proven to be poisonous for the number ones. Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin tries to make sense of the madness of this year's tournament.

• Financial Takeout:  How can a health insurance reform bill, which costs $940 billion, reduce the country’s deficit by over $1 trillion? Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times tells us that if you read the fine print closely … it doesn't! 
• Sports Takeout: Sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin has the latest results from the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

With the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament set to start Thursday, many brackets are due by noon today.  If you haven't gotten yours in yet, we've got some last minute tips from freelance sports writer and contributor to SportingNews.com and the Wall Street Journal, Dan Shanoff.