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Doug Mills/The New York Times President Obama on ESPN revealing his N.C.A.A. mens’s basketball bracket on Wednesday.

Being president is an ego trip. So you would have thought President Obama wouldn’t need to add to his bragging rights. But Mr. Obama’s N.C.A.A. men’s basketball bracket stands — for the moment, anyway — as one of the best out there.

Out of 32 games, Mr. Obama has accurately predicted all but three. As of Saturday morning, he ranks at No. 16 on The Times’s bracket site, tied with many others. Mr. Obama has a total of 166 out of 195 points possible.

The success of the president’s picks may bring him attention that White House aides would rather do without. Critics of the president chastised him for spending time on college basketball — and announcing his bracket on ESPN — even as the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and violence spread in the Middle East and north Africa.

“Millions of Americans will be filling out a bracket this week, but only one of them is responsible for signing a federal budget, monitoring the crisis in the Middle East and assisting with a major humanitarian effort in Japan,” said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

“With all of those pressing issues on the President’s plate, we would be happy to hear the White House explain why filming an ESPN special on the N.C.A.A. tournament should be a priority on his public schedule,” Ms. Kurkowski said.

White House aides dismissed the criticism and noted that Mr. Obama used the ESPN interview to urge people to donate to relief efforts in Japan. And in sports, Americans love nothing more than a winner, so the criticism is likely to fade as the basketball tournament proceeds.

Mr. Obama has accurately predicted the winners of some of the closest games, including ones between George Mason University and Villanova, Kentucky and Princeton, and Temple and Penn State.

He stumbled just a bit, picking Georgetown over Virginia Commonwealth, perhaps going with the alma mater of his communication’s director, Dan Pfeiffer.

Mr. Obama also erroneously picked Louisville over Morehead State and Michigan State over UCLA. Both of his picks lost by a hair to the other team.

Mr. Obama has picked Kansas to win the championship final over Ohio State. His picks for the final eight teams are all still alive, giving him a shot at a near-perfect bracket.

All of which proves one thing: Mr. Obama knows his hoops.

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President Obama combined two of his passions – basketball and politics –by playing host to a dozen members of Congress at the White House on Wednesday night to watch the televised contest between the Chicago Bulls and the Charlotte Bobcats.

The attendees, according to a list from the White House, were all from Illinois and North Carolina. They included just two Republicans; the White House did not say how many Republicans were invited but declined.

But if the group’s partisan split skewed Democratic, especially counting the First Fan, the dozen lawmakers seemed evenly split between Bulls and Bobcats fans. Also attending were the mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx, and a council member, James Mitchell.

Attendees were to include both senators from Illinois – Richard J. Durbin, the No. 2 Democratic leader, and Mark Steven Kirk, the Republican who last year won the seat that Mr. Obama used to hold. But of North Carolina’s two senators, Kay Hagan, a Democrat, was listed but the Republican, Richard M. Burr, was not.

The nine House members included four Democrats from Chicago – Representatives Danny Davis, Jesse Jackson Jr., Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky; four Democrats from North Carolina — G.K. Butterfield, Larry Kissell, David Price and Mel Watt – and one Republican from North Carolina, Sue Myrick.

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WASHINGTON — Well, as the saying goes, when you fall off the bike, you have to get right back on.

President Obama returned to the basketball court Sunday morning, not two days after basketball-gate on Friday, when he got elbowed in his lip by fellow player Rey Decerega, the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and ended up with 12 stitches.

Mr. Obama headed to the basketball court at the Interior Department on Sunday morning. The First Basketball Player did take one precaution for this game, though. He is playing with his daughters, the White House Press Office said.

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5:14 p.m. | Updated 4:46 p.m. | Updated President Obama had to get 12 stitches in his upper lip after getting a blow from an opposing player’s elbow during a basketball game Friday morning, White House officials said.

“After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player’s elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the President received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit,” the press secretary, Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “They were done in the doctor’s office located on the ground floor of the White House.”

The statement didn’t say whose elbow connected with the First Lip, but already one denial has come in: Reggie Love, the former Duke University basketball player who is now Mr. Obama’s aide, was on the court but says it wasn’t him. Maybe Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson, the basketball coach at Oregon State University? Mr. Obama was, after all, according to the pool report, playing with “members of his family.”

In any event, Mr. Obama was never knocked out completely, so to speak, so Vice President Joseph Biden was not required to step up to the top spot.

The White House said Mr. Obama was given a local anesthetic while receiving the stitches. The stitches were made with a smaller filament than is typically used, which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch and results in a smaller scar.

Update: A second White House statement said that Mr. Obama was injured when another player “turned into POTUS, who was playing defense, to take a shot when the elbow hit the President in the mouth.”

This statement did not name the player responsible for the elbow, but confirmed Mr. Love’s assertion that he didn’t do it and cleared a couple of other players: Mr. Obama’s nephew Avery Robinson, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Update:Shortly after 5 p.m., the name of the elbower emerged: Rey Decerega, who is the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Mr. Decerega said in a statement that the game was all in good fun and did not apologize.

“I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport,” he said. “I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon.”

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President Obama required 12 stitches in his upper lip after he was hit by an elbow in a basketball game at the White House Friday morning, the White House Press office announced. “After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player’s elbow in his lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the President received 12 [...]

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