President Barack Obama got caught up in March Madness again as he released his third-annual “Barack-etology” NCAA Tournament picks for ESPN.
The President chalked it up, picking all the No. 1 seeds for his Final 4 eventually settling on Kansas as his champ.
As for local teams Temple and Villanova, Obama for the second-straight year split his vote -- at least in the first round.
In the West bracket Obama picked the seventh-seeded Owls to down in state rival Penn State in the first round before falling to No. 2 seed San Diego State in the second round.
While in the East bracket Obama picked No. 8 seed George Mason to take care of ninth-seeded Villanova in the opening round. Last year Obama had the Wildcats in the Final Four so maybe this year he is hoping not to get burned by the reeling Cats.
Obama also picked the Women’s bracket with UConn coming out on top. On the ladies side he is also hooting for the Owls as he has 10th-seeded Temple upsetting Arizona State in the first round.
Despite diverting to college basketball briefly, Obama wanted to make sure that Americans keep the Japanese people in mind:
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One of the things I wanted to do on the show was, as people are filling out their brackets -- this is obviously a national pastime; we all have a great time, it’s a great diversion. But I know a lot of people are thinking how can they help the Japanese people during this time of need. If you go to usaid.gov that will list all the nonprofits, the charities that are helping out there. It would be wonderful for people to maybe offer a little help to the Japanese people at this time -- as they’re filling out their brackets.
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