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Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wanted President Barack Obama to know he was joking when he said Obama should focus on the economy rather than picking an NCAA Tournament bracket.

So Krzyzewski's wife, Mickie, sent a text message to former Duke basketball player Reggie Love, who is Obama's personal assistant.

"Reggie texted back and said (Obama) wasn't offended," Krzyzewski said Friday. "Though some of the staff was concerned, because they always have to be concerned."

Krzyzewski said he was misrepresented Wednesday on what he called a "throwaway line," which he intended to be funny, on Obama picking North Carolina to win the NCAA Tournament in an ESPN.com bracket.

Krzyzewski said his wife and daughters were more upset than he was.

But Krzyzewski still sounded frustrated.

"People want at some times to create news, they don't want to report news," Krzyzewski said Friday during his news conference to preview Duke's second-round NCAA Tournament game with Texas. "And in their zest to create, they tell quarter stories or tenth stories or 25 percent instead of telling the whole thing."

Krzyzewski is known as a conservative politically and held a fundraiser for Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2002. Nonetheless, on Wednesday he was complimentary of the president.

"I love the guy, and I think he's going to be great," he said.

Many media outlets didn't include that quote. Krzyzewski was disappointed with that and frustrated because his throwaway line was portrayed as serious by news outlets. He said Love texted Mickie Krzyzewski back to say Obama thinks Mike Krzyzewski is all right.

"Then she texted back and said, 'Thanks,'" Krzyzewski said.

RATINGS UP 9 PERCENT: More viewers are tuning into the NCAA tournament.

CBS executives believed fans would turn to the games as welcome distraction from the floundering economy. Television ratings from the first day Thursday may be proving that true.

Despite a dearth of wild finishes and big upsets, the games' average rating was 9 percent higher than last year. They earned a 4.7 overnight rating and 10 share, compared with a 4.3/10 in 2008.

A rating is the percentage of all homes with televisions watching a program. The share is the percentage of all TV sets in use at the time. Overnight ratings measure the country's largest markets.

CHARITY WORK: About 200 volunteers from a youth service organization are traveling to Indianapolis today to sort about 500,000 pairs of shoes that have been donated to the Samaritan's Feet charity.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based organization donates shoes to needy children around the world, a cause that gained widespread attention last year after IUPUI basketball coach Ron Hunter went barefoot during a game. This year, more than 300 youth, high school and college coaches went barefoot for one game and collected shoes around the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Since Samaritan's Feet started in 2003, about 3 million pairs of shoes have been collected. The organization's goal is to distribute 10 million pairs by 2013.

The volunteers, mostly middle and high school students, will arrive from Terre Haute about 9:30 a.m. Saturday and spend about five hours sorting through the shoes.

FAN DIES: A male fan in his mid-70s has died after collapsing at the NCAA tournament site in Miami.

The man from the Fort Lauderdale area was pronounced dead Friday night shortly after arriving at the hospital, a spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue said.

The man's identity was not released.

He was not breathing when paramedics reached him at his seat about 20 rows from the court as Arizona warmed up to play Utah. They performed CPR at the scene and all the way to the hospital, but the man was unresponsive, said Lt. Ignatius Carroll, spokesman for Miami Fire Rescue.

The man was carried out of AmericanAirlines Arena after briefly being treated there.

FIRST-TIMERS: North Dakota State lost 84-74 to Kansas and Stephen F. Austin lost 59-44 to Syracuse, meaning the four schools making their first NCAA tournament appearances went 0-4. Morgan State and Binghamton both lost Thursday.

North Dakota State was a true rookie, however, since this was the Bison's first year eligible for the tournament after its transition from Division II. Quite a few fans made the trip from Fargo to Minneapolis, but they weren't enough to hand the defending champion Jayhawks a first-round loss.

"That's something that I will never forget in my entire life," Ben Woodside, who had 37 points for the Bison, said of taking the court at the Metrodome. "I remember walking out there. We were doing layup lines, and I couldn't even hear my teammates who were standing right next to me it was so loud."