Barack Obama makes his March Madness picks ahead of the start of the NCAA Tournament
President Barack Obama’s love of basketball is well documented, so March Madness is always a big time of year. During his eight years in office, Obama made a tradition of filling out his NCAA Tournament bracket — typically alongside college basketball analyst Andy Katz — for the world to see.
Even though he isn’t in the White House anymore, Obama still wants to make his picks known, so he took to Twitter shortly before games began Thursday to unveil his picks.
Obama made an unsurprising pick for his champion: the Duke Blue Devils. It makes sense after Obama made a pilgrimage to Durham, North Carolina, to watch Duke take on the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Zion Williamson made the Blue Devils a hot enough ticket to draw the former President, but the All-American power forward only played a few minutes before injuring his ankle.
Obama was one of the first people in the arena to realize what happened.
Obama envisions a rematch of the game he watched in the title game. He’s going with Duke-North Carolina, a battle of No. 1 seeds, for the NCAA championship. The two storied programs — and archrivals — have never faced each other in the NCAA Tournament.
Obama also picked two No. 2 seeds to round out his Final Four. Obama has the Blue Devils topping the Michigan Wolverines in their semifinal game and the Tar Heels taking down the Tennessee Volunteers in the other.
He also has some notable upset picks along the way. Obama sees the No. 12 seed Oregon Ducks and No. 13 seed UC Irvine Anteaters both springing first-round upsets in the South to meet in the Round of 32, where he has Oregon advancing to the Sweet 16. In the Midwest, Obama is going with the No. 12 seed New Mexico State Aggies in the Sweet 16 after knocking off the No. 5 seed Auburn Tigers and No. 4 seed Kansas Jayhawks in the first two rounds.
Obama has two other double-digit seeds pulling off upsets in the Round of 64 with the No. 10-seed Seton Hall Pirates and No. 10 seed Florida Gators winning their first-round matchups.
The rest of Obama’s Sweet 16 is mostly filled with favorites. In the East, Duke is joined by the No. 2 seed Michigan State Spartans, the No. 4 seed Virginia Tech Hokies and No. 6 seed Maryland Terrapins. Out West, Michigan is joined by the top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs, the No. 3 seed Texas Tech Aggies and the No. 4 seed Florida State Seminoles. In the South, Tennessee and Oregon are joined by the No. 1 seed Virginia Cavaliers, and the No. 6 seed Villanova Wildcats. And in the Midwest, North Carolina and New Mexico State are joined by the No. 2 seed Kentucky Wildcats, and the No. 6 seed Iowa State Cyclones.