With the Democratic primary fast approaching, the 6-foot-2 presidential hopeful played with the Tar Heels in a pickup basketball game at the Dean E. Smith Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. Obama dodged elbows, sprinted, and zigged and zagged with his competition -- much like a politician on the campaign trail.

Although the fleet-footed senator from Illinois boasts a double-digit lead in North Carolina polls over challenger Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he was out of his league against the players he had picked last month to win the NCAA Tournament.

Obama, suited up in black sweat pants and a gray T-shirt, was first given a private tour by UNC coach Roy Williams and his wife, Wanda.

Then it was on to the court, where Obama posed with players, shook hands, then tried to keep up with a rigorous game of hoops.

The 46-year-old competitor went up against Tyler Hansbrough at one point. As more than a dozen members of the national press corps and several local TV crews watched, Obama's ball rimmed the hoop, then dropped out to a resounding "ooh."

"I thought I had one over the national player of the year," Obama said.

The Tar Heels, not used to playing in such a political arena, needed a little coaching on working their well-known visitor into the lineup.

"At one point Coach Williams pulled me aside and said, 'You know, you have a presidential candidate on your team; you may want to pass him the ball,' " Marcus Ginyard said. "After that, I made sure I got it to him the next five or six times."

Word was that Jack Wooten, a junior walk-on guard from Burlington, roughed up the presidential hopeful a bit with a block and a foul that nearly set the Secret Service swarming.

At another point in the contest, Williams called out playfully to the players: "You've left the next president of the United States wide open."

After Obama made one shot in warmups and none during regular play, his aides ushered reporters and cameras out of the gym.

Those left behind said Obama downed a 3-pointer and scored off the court.

"I don't usually follow political stuff all that closely, but after playing him today, I will," Ginyard said.

(Staff writer Robbi Pickeral contributed to this report.)