Clinton's Final-Four call: 'Tight as a tick'

by Mark Silva

We know President Barack Obama's picks for the Final Four of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

And now we know President Bill Clinton's picks - sort of.

Clinton, appearing today on XM/Sirius Radio's 60/20 Sports hosted by Clintonite James Carville and NBC-ite Luke Russert, shared most of his picks - though he wasn't entirely sure of how they will all play out. Memphis, he suggested, is a little "skinny.''

Clinton, college basketball fan, and Carville, political strategist, went through the lineup.

"Who have you got in the Final Four?" Carville asked Clinton.

""Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh and North Carolina,'' Clinton said. "Or Louisville [versus] Connecticut. I can't tell. Memphis may have a good enough defense, but they're skinny, so U Conn can probably match up against them and I think they'll get by."

Clinton went on to predict a Louisville-North Carolina final, with the Cardinals emerging from a tight contest as National Champions.

"Louisville was so good to us the last go 'round I kind of think Louisville will win," the former president said. "But North Carolina I still believe, you know, they sort of show up sometimes and sometimes they don't.

"If their point guard (Ty Lawson) is healthy they're going to be hard to beat just because they've got great athletes. But I must say I was really impressed with Louisville at the end of the year. They were better than I thought they were and to win the Big East [Conference regular season] and then win the Big East Tournament, you know, I think they're good.

"If those two teams get in the final," Clinton said. "Basketball doesn't have a loser because Roy Williams is a great coach and Carolina, I still think they've got the best athletes if the point guard stays healthy. But Louisville has a way of playing, their defense is so great that if they can just make even two-thirds of their free throws all the way home I just think they're going to be hard to beat.

"Defense, it seems to me, tends to win National Championships and their defense is just so good that's why I'm picking them. But I think it's tight as a tick."

This was Clinton's fourth pre-tournament appearance on 60/20 Sports.

The concept for 60/20 Sports was born in 2006 from "octane sports debates between the then 60-year-old Carville and then 20-year-old Russert during Washington Nationals baseball games,'' XM/Sirius radio says. "The two life-long sports fans... can be heard every Friday at 11:00 am ET on SIRIUS XM Sports Nation (SIRIUS channel 122., XM Channel 143) .

Hear Clinton's calls here.