Obama roots for Princeton niece at NCAA tourney
President Obama spent his Saturday on the University of Maryland campus, watching a tense NCAA women's basketball tournament game between eighth-seeded Princeton University and ninth-seeded Green Bay.
According to White House pool reports, the president attended to cheer on his niece, Leslie Robinson, who plays for Princeton's team. Though Robinson, a Princeton forward, remained on the bench, the Ivy League team pulled off a win after a halftime score that had the two teams neck and neck at 35-34. Princeton advanced on to the next round, with a final score of 80-70 over Green Bay.
Mr. Obama opted out of luxury box viewing and instead sat in a third row seat with an entourage that included daughter Malia, brother-in-law and former University of Oregon basketball coach Craig Robinson and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Duncan, a Harvard basketball team alumnus and frequent basketball companion to the president, had also participated in three NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity games.
Though the game turned political at one point, with Princeton fans chanting "four more years," Mr. Obama waved them off.
Though the president wasn't seen in Princeton's signature "Tiger Pride" orange -- Mr. Obama was sporting a brown sweater -- his recently released March Madness bracket puts the Ivy League university in the Final Four.
For the men's tournament -- in what some might call a "risk averse" bracket -- the president is betting on Kentucky winning the championship, with Duke, Villanova and Arizona rounding out the Final Four.