(From the Triangle Business Journal)
The president had an admonition for the team, according to ESPN: “This year, don’t embarrass me in front of the nation, all right? I’m counting on you.”
President Barack Obama is picking the North Carolina Tar Heels to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Obama, in a special filmed for ESPN, is picking the Heels over the Louisville Cardinals in the national title game on April 6 in Detroit. The president’s other Final Four teams are the Memphis Tigers and the Pittsburgh Panthers.
“I’m going with experience, and I think that (point guard Ty) Lawson is going to be healthy,” Obama said of the Tar Heels, who are concerned over an injury to Lawson’s right big toe. “I think having an experienced point guard who can control the game and make free throws at the end, that’s going to be the difference.”
It’s the second straight year Obama has picked the Heels, who fell in the Final Four last year to eventual national champion Kansas. The president had an admonition for the team, according to ESPN: “This year, don’t embarrass me in front of the nation, all right? I’m counting on you.”
The president also likes Duke to make it to the Elite Eight, where he expects the Blue Devils to get knocked off by Pitt.
Despite Duke’s skilled perimeter players, Obama says, “they just don’t have the muscle inside. I think (Pitt big man DeJuan) Blair is going to eat them up.”
Wake Forest will make the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Louisville, Obama says.
Obama is a basketball fanatic who famously played pickup games on the campaign trail. Last April, he played a pickup game on the UNC campus with the Tar Heels.
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