Louisville's Samardo Samuels.

NEW YORK (AP)

United States President Barack Obama has selected Jamaican centre Samardo Samuel's Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and Pittsburgh for the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA) Final Four.

Obama made the revelation after indulging in a popular pastime among American Sports fans, filling out his NCAA tournament bracket for sports network ESPN. The network posted the presidents picks online yesterday. Samuels, who has been a revelation since opting to play for the Rick Pitino-coached Louisville, was selected to the All-Big East rookie team, but missed out on rookie player of the year honours to Georgetown centre Greg Monroe.

Samuels has averaged 11.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game during the regular season, in his first season in the Big East. He helped Louisville to its first Big East regular season crown in arguably the toughest conference in the nation.

A former Trelawny native, Samuels took part in a development camp organised by the Jamaica Basketball Development (JBD) before being awarded a scholarship to St Benedict's Prep, there he was voted to McDonald's All-American team.

A private campaign promise earned ESPN the hoops scoop. Katz interviewed Obama during the presidential campaign last October for a story about the president's brother-in-law, Oregon State head basketball coach Craig Robinson. After the interview, Obama invited Katz to play in a pickup basketball game on Election Day in Chicago, and he did. Katz extracted a promise from Obama that if elected, the new president would reveal his NCAA picks to ESPN when the pairings were announced in March.