Former president Barack Obama carried out his time-honored March tradition on Thursday: revealing his bracket.
The noted hoops fan made his picks for the NCAA men's basketball tournament public on the morning of the first round. As he often did when he was in office, Obama leaned heavily on the blue bloods to make deep runs this year.
He has three No. 1 seeds—Gonzaga, Arizona and Kansas—making it to the Final Four, along with No. 2 seed Kentucky out of the East region. In the title game, Obama has Gonzaga cutting down the nets for the first time, knocking off Arizona.
In the earlier rounds is where the 44th president takes some risks. Most notably, he has No. 13 Vermont knocking off Arkansas in the first round, and has No. 11 Michigan making it to the Sweet 16. The only No. 1 seed he has not advancing to the Final Four is Baylor—Obama predicts the defending champs to be bounced out of the regional semifinals against No. 4 seed UCLA.
Obama also picked Gonzaga to win the title last season, which didn’t work out so well for the Bulldogs, as they were blown out in the national title game. Surely Mark Few and company will hope for better results this time around.
