Like NBA champions, NCAA champions have a custom of visiting the US president every year after winning the title. Or rather “had” custom, because no champion team went to the White House since Villanova in 2016, the last year of Barack Obama…
Donald Trump’s term was indeed marked by a repeated boycott of the university champions during this period, since North Carolina in 2017, Villanova again in 2018, Virginia in 2019 and Baylor in 2021 (season interrupted by the pandemic in 2020) did not were actually not at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. As for Kansas, champion in 2022, he had declined the invitation of Joe Biden, for reasons of non-concordant calendars according to the official version given by the program.
This year therefore marks a return to “normality” from this point of view, since UConn, champion last month, was invited by the American president and accepted his invitation, for a visit scheduled for May 26. This will be the Huskies’ fifth visit to the White House, following titles in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014.
After the imbroglio, the girls go there too
On the same day, the LSU champions will finally accompany the UConn champions well, precise ESPN. We say “finally”, because it was not necessarily acquired…
As a reminder, after the Tigers title at the expense of Iowa and Caitlin Clark, first lady Jill Biden had raised the possibility of inviting… the two finalist teams, after the final exploded audience records. An idea that had, unsurprisingly, upset the LSU players, who then wanted to boycott the event…
Before changing his mind, as explained by Angel Reese, LSU’s best player last season.
” At first, we took it badly. It was an emotional reaction because we had worked hard to win this title she declared thus. ” But the experience of going to the White House is unique […] so we decided to go there. »
All’s well that ends well…
