Obama picks Hoosiers to win NCAA crown

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Barack Obama has selected the Indiana University Hoosiers as his choice to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball tournament this year.

The annual presidential pick was revealed on Wednesday on ESPN in a session videotaped on Tuesday, two days after the bracket for the national championship known affectionately as “March Madness” was announced.

“I think this is Indiana’s year,” Obama said after saying he favored the Big Ten squad to face Big East rival University of Louisville Cardinals in the April 8 final. “These are the two best teams right now.”

Obama correctly picked two of last year’s Final Four teams, Ohio State and Kentucky, although his 2012 choice for champion North Carolina lost in the quarter-finals.

Big business

US collegiate sports are big business for schools, with the hunger for multi-million-dollar television rights fees having sparked expansion among the most powerful sporting schools in recent years.

Every season, millions of people fill out their “brackets” with hopes of making enough correct selections to defeat rivals as alumni back their school squad and many fans without NBA teams nearby adopt their state’s entrants.

Victor Oladipo, the son of Nigerian parents from suburban Washington, is the leading playmaker for the Hoosiers. The 20-year-old guard averaged 13.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals a game as Indiana went 27-6 this season.

Indiana is the East region top seed while Louisville is the top seed in the Midwest. Obama picked Indiana to defeat South region third seed Florida in one semi-final and Louisville to oust West second seed Ohio State in the other.

Gonzaga to be ousted in Round of 16

Obama said West top seed Gonzaga, a team with five players from outside the United States that was rated No. 1 in the nation in the USA Today coaches’ poll, would be eliminated by fifth seed Wisconsin in the round of 16.

Kelly Olynyk, a long-haired 7-foot (2.13m) center from Canada, leads the Bulldogs with help from Canadian guard Kevin Pangos, German forward Elias Harris, Polish center Przemek Karnowski and Ivory Coast’s Guy Landry Edi.

“Even though Olynyk is a great big man, has great hair, does a great job, I think Wisconsin pulls the upset,” Obama said. “The Big Ten was far and away the best conference this year.”

Obama said he put Syracuse University into the “Sweet 16” on the advice of vice president Joe Biden, saying, “Biden told me if I didn’t pick them he wouldn’t talk to me.” – Rappler.com