President Barack Obama Chooses Connecticut to Win Women’s Title in NCAA Bracket

Barack Obama likes Connecticut. For the second straight year, the president has picked UConn's women's team to win the NCAA title.

Obama revealed his bracket for the women's competition at the White House on Friday, ESPN.com reports.

Obama believes the defending women's champions will beat Duke and Tennessee on the way to topping Baylor in the finals.

The president acknowledged that he is a huge fan of UConn's Maya Moore.

"Maya Moore was on the court [for a pick-up game at the White House], and she lit guys up," he said while making his predictions. "She can hang with the best players in the world, and she's a winner.

"Maya is going to be hitting her jumper, she's going to be making rebounds, she's going to be making plays, and I think Connecticut wins it again."

Obama picked Kansas to win everything on the men's side.

Many writers and politicians have blasted the commander in chief for participating in his third annual public bracket announcement when the world is in turmoil, but White House spokesman Jay Carney defended Obama against his Barack-etology critics.

"There are crises all the time and for every President," Carney said. "And again, this one is happening halfway around the world, and it is severe and it is important and it is the focus of a great deal of the President’s attention — as are the events in the Middle East; as are the agenda items that he is pursuing to grow the economy and increase jobs in America, make sure we out-innovate, out-build and out-educate the competition in the 21st century. It's a hard job that requires a lot.

"It is also important — one of the things I would note that the President did in that very brief interview on ESPN and ESPN2 was ask Americans, as they were filling out their own brackets, take the time to go to usaid.gov and make donations to a variety of charitable organizations that are organizing donations to help the Japanese in this very serious situation that they find themselves in. And so, yes, I do think it was appropriate."