2012 NCAA Tournament

For the fourth year in a row Barack Obama has filled out a bracket for ESPN.

 You can track the progress of Obama's bracket here. Who do you have going to the Final Four? You can find my bracket here.

As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

Barack-etology 2011

For the 3rd straight year President Obama has filled out NCAA Tournament brackets for ESPN. 

ESPN College Basketball analyst Andy Katz (you can find his blog post here) was at the White House yesterday to host the segment for SportsCenter and the other ESPN platforms. The video is embedded below. Two years ago he correctly picked UNC to win the NCAA Tournament. Last year his pick of Kansas got knocked out in the second round.

You can find Obama's brackets for both the Mens and Womens tournaments on the White House website. He will appear on SportsCenter again tomorrow morning with Doris Burke to unveil his Womens Tournament bracket. Earlier today on Sportscenter John Buccigross and Doug Gottlieb said that Obama's signed bracket from two years ago is displayed in the ESPN cafeteria. I'll post my bracket at some point between now and tip off on Thursday. Really struggling with it this year and coming out with a lot of chalk results and that is why I am not really surprised that Obama is going with the four #1s

Obama's Mens Tournament Bracket for ESPN

Obama's Womens Tournament Bracket

From ESPN's SportsCenter earlier today. 

ESPN has entered Obama's bracket as an entry into their Tournament Challenge. How well will he do? In a usual year I may have criticized Obama for going chalk with his bracket but in talking with other college basketball fans most of us are coming out with brackets very similar to his.
Andy Katz has had some nice exclusives with Barack Obama over the past few years.

Neil Best of Newsday pointed out, it is worth noting that Obama picked Kansas to win it all again. They are the only one of his Final Four teams that doesn't play in a battleground state. Reid Wilson noted earlier today that one of Obama's first round upsets is Marquette over Xavier (the alma mater of Speak John Boehner). I am not a of over analyzing the bracket from a political angle but sometimes it just can't be helped.

What I absolutely have to laugh at is those who criticize Obama for filling out a NCAA bracket. A large chunk of the people criticizing him are probably in a office pool of their own. Just take a look at this clip from Fox "News".

Just because Obama spent a small part of his day with ESPN we are to believe he is not paying attention to what is going on in the world? That sentiment is even more ridiculous when Obama asks people to donate to help the victims in Japan as part of his segments on ESPN. How many people do you think Obama reached out with that message by going on ESPN? I just don't understand the people who act as though just because he is the President he shouldn't do anything "normal". I always point people out to this (and this).

One of the things I wanted to do on the show was, as people are filling out their brackets -- this is obviously a national pastime; we all have a great time, it’s a great diversion.  But I know a lot of people are thinking how can they help the Japanese people during this time of need.  If you go to usaid.gov -- usaid.gov -- that will list all the nonprofits, the charities that are helping out there.  It would be wonderful for people to maybe offer a little help to the Japanese people at this time -- as they’re filling out their brackets.  It’s not going to take a lot of time.  That's usaid.gov.  It could be really helpful.

That is what Obama told ESPN about the events that are unfolding in Japan. What more do people want him to do? Do you have a problem with Obama filling out a bracket? Let me know here.

Houston Chronicle takes a look at just how hard it is to predict the NCAA Tournament. ESPN also takes an interesting look at the NCAA Tournament. I honestly had forgotten that it has been nine years since a #15 beat a #2.
As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

Obama plays favorites, picks all No. 1 seeds to reach NCAA men’s, women’s Final Four - The Washington Post

Obama plays favorites, picks all No. 1 seeds to reach NCAA men’s, women’s Final Four - The Washington Post

For the 3rd straight year President Obama has filled out NCAA Tournament brackets for ESPN. I am guessing the clips will air tomorrow on ESPN. I will post the videos when they become available. Two years ago he correctly picked UNC to win the NCAA Tournament. Last year his pick of Kansas got knocked out in the second round.

I'll post my bracket at some point between now and tip off on Thursday. Really struggling with it this year and coming out with a lot of chalk results and that is why I am not really surprised that Obama is going with the four #1s.

Earlier today ESPN's Andy Katz was spotted in the White House Briefing room by Sam Youngman of "The Hill" who is a big Kentucky Wildcats fan.
As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

Baracketology 2010

If you missed it on ESPN about 20 minutes ago they revealed Barack Obama's NCAA Mens Tournament bracket. Just like they did last year, ESPN posted a PDF of Obama's original bracket too.

Barack Obama did correctly pick UNC as the National Champions last year.

Make sure to watch the video from today's segment.



The President will return to ESPN Friday morning during the 9 AM Sportscenter to talk about his Womens tournament bracket with Doris Burke. ESPN did put up his Womens Tournament bracket already though.

Are there any good NCAA Tournament related books out there that are worth a read? I've heard good reviews of the Larry Bird/Johnson book "When the Game Was Ours", has anyone out there ready it? Same applies to "When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball" by Seth Davis?

If you play NCAA Mens or Women Bracket Challenges on Yahoo or ESPN get in touch with me. I am running groups on both.

As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

 


Seed on Newsvine

Barack Obama and the NCAA Tournament

Barack Obama's love of sports is well documented. The man is a genuine fan and not a phony celebrity sports fan. As is well known by now, Basketball is his favorite sports. ESPN announced today that the President will return to their network tomorrow for the 2nd straight year to reveal his bracket. ESPN entered his entry last year into their online Tournament Challenge. He will also be on ESPN on Thursday to reveal his Womens Tournament Bracket with Doris Burke.

As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

  Seed on Newsvine

Barack Obama at the Duke/Georgetown Game

Everyone knows that Barack Obama is a big sports fan. Everyone also knows that he is an even bigger basketball fan. I have written about it in the past. This afternoon a large contingent from the West Wing (the real one....not the TV show) made the short trek to the Verizon Center to catch Georgetown/Duke from courtside.

We see politicians and celebrities all the time pretend to be sports fans but it really is nice to see some genuine ones come along. This isn't Martha Coakley being a fake Red Sox fan. This isn't even Whoopi Goldberg pretending to be a New York Giants fan.  There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this man loves his sports.

Obama didn't show much rooting interest on the sidelines but I was fully expecting him to be rooting for the hometown Hoyas. Everyone remembers Coach K. attacking the President last year when Obama picked Duke arch rivals University of North Carolina to win it all. His personal aide, Reggie Love is a former Duke basketball player. His Communications director Dan Pfeiffer is a former Hoyas' player (didn't actually step on the court though). The President actually went to the broadcasting table to join CBS broadcasters Verne Lundquinst and Clark Kellogg for a little play by play. The President brought his funny with him too. When Kellogg mentioned his Ohio State team beating Obama's brother in law Greg Robinson, Obama quickly shot back saying that Ohio State should not be bragging about beating an Ivy League (Princeton) team! Obama also told Clark Kellogg (who he called the best color man in the business) that he was coming after his job in "three or seven years".



The President was joined at the game by Vice President Joe Biden, Personal Aide Reggie Love, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, Advisor David Axelrod Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and the Vice President's son Hunter. I'm sure there were other people present too but these were the people I saw.

As always you can leave a comment here, reach me by e-mail or .

  Seed on Newsvine

NCAA Tournament

How is everyone's bracket shaping up? I ended up with three 1s and a 2 in the Final Four. I have a couple of groups going on ESPN and Yahoo. If you're interested send me an e-mail.



Andy Katz keeps getting nice basketball exclusives with President Obama. First it was the election day basketball game with then Candidate Obama. As part of that Obama agreed to fill out a NCAA Tournament bracket for ESPN. They actually put up his original bracket too.


ESPN actually submitted the entry from POTUS into their Tournament Challenge.