President likes Princeton's chances

— -- Top-ranked Connecticut is President Barack Obama's pick to win the NCAA women's basketball tournament, but he has big plans for a team that felt snubbed by the NCAA women's tournament committee.

The president, admitting his bias, has Princeton -- the alma mater of his wife, Michelle, and the team for which his niece Leslie Robinson plays -- going to the Final Four, where the Tigers ultimately fall to UConn.

Princeton, unbeaten during the regular season, was given only an eighth seed by the NCAA women's tournament committee.

The Tigers play Wisconsin-Green Bay in the opening round, then are likely to face Maryland, the top seed in the Spokane Regional.

Robinson averaged 3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game this season for the Tigers. She's a 6-foot freshman from Corvallis, Oregon, and the daughter of former Princeton player and Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson (who works currently as an ESPN analyst). Michelle Obama is a 1985 graduate of Princeton.

Obama has UConn beating third-seeded Louisville in the Albany Regional final before meeting Princeton. The president has Princeton beating Oregon State in the Spokane Regional final.

The other side of Obama's bracket is more conventional; he has top seeds Notre Dame in the Oklahoma City Regional and South Carolina in the Greensboro Regional advancing to play each other in the semis, with Notre Dame advancing to play UConn in the title game.

UConn beat Notre Dame 76-58 on Dec. 6 in South Bend, Indiana.

Obama's other regional finalists are Baylor (losing to Notre Dame) in the Oklahoma City Regional and Florida State (losing to South Carolina) in the Greensboro Regional.

In 2014, Obama picked eventual national champ UConn to win it all, and finished in the 98.5th percentile of all entries.