Barack-etology

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: March 19, 2009

After all the new words that were created from Barack Obama’s name during the 2008 presidential campaign, it was just a matter of time before someone noted his love of basketball with the malleability of his moniker.

So, ESPN gives you Barack-etology, the president’s picks for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

For the record, the president takes three No. 1 seeds—Louisville, North Carolina and Pittsburgh—to make the Final Four, but he picks 2-seed Memphis to knock off No. 1 Connecticut in the Elite Eight. He picks UNC to win it all over Louisville.

You can see President Obama’s handwritten bracket on the White House blog. Notice that the president changed his mind a few times when making his picks ... I’m sure there’s a joke there about a politician flip-flopping, but I’ll leave it alone.

For what it’s worth, I took Connecticut, North Carolina, Duke and Kansas in the Final Four, with the Huskies besting the Blue Devils for the title.

Who’d you pick?

UPDATE: Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski had this to say about the president’s picks:

Somebody said we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four. As much as I respect what he’s doing, really the economy is something he should focus on more than the brackets.

Doh!