Obama picks Jayhawks as NCAA champs

By Anne E. Kornblut
President Obama took a break from arm-twisting on health-care reform Wednesday to fill out his NCAA basketball brackets (Ba-rackets? Barack-ets?) - this year adding his predictions for the women's tournament as well as the men's championship.

Obama chose Kentucky, Kansas, Kansas State and Villanova to make the Final Four. Saying he had been "completely brainwashed," Obama predicted Duke would make it to the Elite Eight - a nod to his aide Reggie Love, a former Duke basketball star. But his independent thinking apparently kicked in at that point, as he selected Villanova over Duke in their hypothetical showdown. He also predicted a Kentucky-West Virginia matchup would be the "best game of the tournament," and one that Kentucky would win.
Obama picked Kansas to ultimately win the championship. Last year, he chose North Carolina - and was right.

In the women's tournament - which Obama skipped last year - he chose Stanford, UConn, Tennessee and Notre Dame to make the final four, with Connecticut beating Stanford for the championship.