Obama has faith in Michigan’s NCAA run, not so much for MSU
That sound you hear in the background is everyone around you filling out their NCAA tournament brackets.
And while fans around here are gearing up for Michigan State basketball against UCLA on Thursday night, many others are flipping a coin for a pick between Cal-Santa Barbara and Creighton.
But before you hit send on your predictions — only to curse them a few days from now — let’s see what perhaps the most famous basketball fan in the world has to say about March Madness.
The former Bracketologist-in-Chief, President Barack Obama, would make his picks known on ESPN in segments taped from the White House when he lived there. He has continued the tradition of sharing his bracket for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, and we got a glimpse of his thoughts from his foundation’s website, obama.org.
For the men, Obama has Michigan getting all the way the Final Four, joining Gonzaga,
Baylor and Illinois. This may be just to keep the folks in his house happy since, at last check, his daughter, Sasha, was a co-ed at U-M.
And yes, Obama went “chalk,” picking all four No. 1 seeds to advance to the national semifinals.
The run for the Wolverines ends there in Obama’s eyes, as he has Gonzaga knocking off Michigan and then Illinois (the state he once represented in Congress) to win the national title.
But, he does have some upsets. In fact, Obama has Michigan State, a No. 11 seed in the East Region, not only beating UCLA in the First Four round, but knocking off No. 6 seed BYU on Saturday. However, Obama thinks No. 3 seed Texas will take down MSU just two days later.
For the women, Obama has two No. 2 seeds, Maryland and North Carolina State, and a pair of No. 1s, Stanford and Baylor, reaching the Final Four, with Baylor winning it all.
He has both Michigan and MSU winning games in Round 1 before falling in Round 2. And, Obama has Central Michigan losing to Iowa on Sunday.
Contact Kirkland
Crawford:
kcrawford@freepress.com.