President Obama held bilateral meetings in New York with several world leaders Friday, including Colombia’s new president, Juan Manuel Santos, who graduated from KU in 1973 with degrees in economics and business.

In addition to current affairs in Colombia, the two discussed college basketball.

“I am proud of being a graduate from the University of Kansas,” Santos said, as he and President Obama stood before a group of reporters. “President Obama knows that we are very good in basketball. But I told him when he called me, what the Republicans say about my education. Afterwards I went to Harvard, and they say I was educated in Kansas and corrupted in Harvard. … We both are also graduates from Harvard, and I am sure that is only a Republican point of view, not a Democratic point of view.”

Obama quickly added: “Actually they all think I was corrupted somewhere.”

Obama noted that Santos often boasts about the exploits of the Jayhawks basketball team.

Last spring in the NCAA Tournament, Obama said, “I bet on them winning it all and they lost. He’s already apologized to me for that.”