Obama's NCAA picks falter during tourney's second weekend
The Hill ^ | 27 March 2011 | Gautham Nagesh
After crushing the competition for the first week of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, President Obama's bracket is starting to resemble those of fans across the nation: busted.
The president was comfortably among the 99th percentile on ESPN.com after the first three rounds of the tournament (including the first round of two play-in games), but his picks began to falter this week as the Sweet Sixteen got underway.
Three out of the president's picks for the Final Four (Ohio State, Duke, and Pittsburgh) lost this week, with his choice for national champion Kansas set to take on Virginia Commonwealth Sunday afternoon in the Elite Eight.
The president's run of good luck began to fade on Thursday when top-seeded Duke and Pittsburgh were upset by Kentucky and Butler, respectively. The Buckeyes fell Friday night to Kentucky, leaving Obama with only half of the final eight correct.
Despite his bracket's recent downturn Obama remains in the 97th percentile of all brackets submitted on NYTimes.com, though that figure may drop should the Jayhawks fail to win the national title as he has predicted.
Obama was hardly the only elected official following the tourney closely; numerous lawmakers have submitted brackets and touted their teams on Twitter during March Madness.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) was particularly thrilled about Butler securing a spot in the Final Four for the second consecutive year on Saturday night, while Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), who pushed for the UConn game to be broadcast on local TV instead of cable, should be happy to see his Huskies advance to the national semifinals.
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