Baracket Obama: President has one questionable call in his NCAA tournament picks

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The President has been compromised.

I can think of no other explanation for Barack Obama‘s pick of No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth over No. 6 UCLA.

It’s obvious from his original bracket. His first choice was UCLA. Then he crossed it out.

You should stick with your first instinct, Mr. President.

VCU might be a trendy upset on many brackets, but it’s one popular pick the populist president should have avoided.

Yes, Rams’ point guard Eric Maynor is NBA-bound. So is UCLA’s Darren Collison. Yes, Maynor led his team to a No. 6 vs. No. 11 upset (same seeding as this first-round match up) over Duke two years ago. Collison has lead his team to three straight Final Fours. After that, the talent level isn’t comparable. Not to say the team is one-dimensional, but Maynor was the leading scorer in 25 of 34 games this season and accounts for over 31% of their points.

Here’s the deal breaker -- Maynor hasn’t faced another NBA-bound point guard all season. UCLA has two -- Collison and Jrue Holiday.

It’ll be a fun matchup with great perimeter shooting, but the only thing keeping this from being a double-digit spread is Seth Davis’ bandwagon.

‘Good for Seth,’ Bruin Coach Ben Howland said.

Bad for Barack.

Otherwise, I like the president’s picks. He went with Memphis, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina in the Final Four, with the Tar Heels winning it all.

I think he’s right that Washington will advance the farthest of all the Pac-10 teams, but disagree with his assessment that ‘the Pac-10 has been looking pretty weak this year.’ Remember that the world’s only superpower -- the Big East -- is sending 43% of its teams to the big dance. The Pac-10 is sending 60%.

Don’t miss Andy Katz’s ESPN column about filling out the First Bracket.

-- Adam Rose