President Barack Obama poses with a Louisville jersey during the national champions' visit to the White House. (Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - When President Barack Obama posted his annual bracket for the NCAA tournament in March, he picked Louisville to make the national championship game.
On Tuesday, Obama jokingly admitted he was one game off with his prediction.
"They practiced with a sole purpose, and that was busting my bracket," said Obama, a noted basketball fan. "I've been having a tough time lately with my brackets."
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Obama honored the national champion Cardinals men's basketball team in the East Room of the White House, and Louisville coach Rick Pitino presented the president with a personalized No. 1 basketball jersey as well as a Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
"The reason we picked a bat is that some press conferences are difficult, as it is for me," joked Pitino, who won his second national championship as a coach, his first with Louisville.
"Feel free to use this at any time," he told Obama.
The Cardinals won the NCAA tournament in dramatic fashion in early April, culminating with an 82-76 comeback win against Michigan in the championship game at the Georgia Dome. They faced a 12-point deficit, but came from behind on the strength of a huge second half by graduating senior point guard Peyton Silva.
Aside from its championship run, Louisville's 2012-13 season was also notable for a gruesome injury to guard Kevin Ware, who suffered a compound fracture in his right leg during Louisville's 85-63 Elite Eight win over Duke. The injury occurred right next to the team bench, and notably affected Ware's teammates and Pitino. At the Final Four, the team and its fans rallied around Ware's absence.
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"Obviously all of us remember the terrible injury that Kevin suffered," Obama said. "But what we also remember is the love that all of his teammates showed for him. The way that he was on crutches a day later, a week after that he was up there cutting the nets in Atlanta. Today he is standing here with his teammates."
It has been a busy four months for Pitino, who won his first national championship at the University of Kentucky in 1996. In the same week that he coached the Cardinals to a title, he learned that his son Richard had been hired as head coach at Minnesota, as well as learning that he had been named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Then, after winning the title, Pitino followed through on a promise to get a tattoo if the Cardinals won it all.
"I guess I discounted the motivational power of making your 60-year-old coach get a tattoo if you won," Obama said. "You have something that will stay with you forever, a shirtless picture of you on the Internet. That will never be erased!"
Pitino's team also won the Big East tournament in 2013 and did not lose a game following a Feb. 9 loss at Notre Dame, a streak that spanned 16 games. The Cardinals finished the season 35-5.
"This team is the perfect example of what a team is all about," Pitino explained. "They suffered together, they cried together. They do their best on the court, they do their best off the court. They love each other."
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