President Bill Clinton Fills Out His NCAA Tournament Bracket

Bill Clinton grew up in Hope, Arkansas, not Hoop, Arkansas, but you wouldn’t have known it to hear him talk about the NCAA Tournament. “I just love it,” he said during a telephone conversation with Hoops HQ on Monday afternoon from Berlin, Germany, where the former president was receiving the Peacemaker of the Century award from the World Democracy Forum. “It’s all or nothing. It doesn’t matter what you did in the season. You have to play.”

As testament to his love of March Madness, the former president has performed the quintessentially American exercise of filling out a bracket. He gave his picks exclusively to Hoops HQ. (Note: My father, Lanny Davis, served as President Clinton’s special counsel from 1996-98.) Perhaps not surprisingly given his roots, President Clinton picked an All-SEC Final Four of Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn and Florida, with Alabama beating Florida in the final.

“It’s because they’ve got so many different good players,” Clinton said of the Crimson Tide. “They have a hard time sorting it out sometimes. I won’t be surprised if they don’t get past the Sweet Sixteen, but if they play like they’re capable of playing, I think they’ve got the most talent.”

Like everyone else who fills out a bracket, Clinton anticipates that his will get busted by some lower-seeded teams that no one is expecting to advance. “The tournament is always unpredictable, but I think this year in particular it will be,” he said. “It comes down to who wants it the most and who’s the smartest about the way they play basketball. And it’s always a game of matchups. You know, we could jumble the brackets and you might get four entirely different teams in the Final Four.”

He added, “There are always stunning upsets. I’m sure I’ve missed some, but I picked VCU and Drake just because I was impressed by the way they played this season.”

Though Clinton has his beloved Razorbacks pulling off a mild upset of Kansas, he went with his head over heart and picked Arkansas to lose to St. John’s in the second round. “(John) Calipari did a good job in his first year,” Clinton said. “Arkansas can beat almost anybody. I won’t be surprised if they beat St. John’s, but St. John’s is a really good team, and Pitino is a genius at figuring out how to win close games.”

President Bill Clinton holding a signed basketball — President Bill Clinton holds a signed game ball presented to him by the Arkansas basketball team in December, 1993.

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It’s not just the Cinderella stories that could topple the former president’s bracket. He has watched Duke all season long and is impressed with the Blue Devils and their star freshman forward, Cooper Flagg. “I think Duke’s the only one that could upset this apple cart,” he said. “I’m surprised that Duke won those games without (Flagg), but they appreciate their other players more now. Flagg is just a game breaker. You’ve got all these other players who play their parts and can step up one game after another. But Flagg is almost unstoppable when he gets it going.”

For President Clinton, the NCAA Tournament will be the culmination of several months of watching this sport. He has always been an avid fan, not just of the postseason but the regular season as well. “I love college basketball,” he said. “I’m much more attuned to that than I am the pros until they get to the playoffs. And I love women’s basketball. I watch all the women’s games I can.”

As usual, Clinton will not be wagering any actual cash on his picks. Perhaps that’s not the proper etiquette for former presidents. That is, however, a very exclusive club, and even if there is no money on the line, there’s plenty of pride at stake. “If Obama beats me in this,” he said, “I’ll never heard the end of it.”