The COO of Goldman Sachs is killing it in a bracket challenge against other executives

Goldman Sachs president and COO Gary Cohn is one of three final competitors in Bloomberg's March Madness bracket challenge, and he chalks it up to his Midwestern roots.

Cohn told Bloomberg TV's Stephanie Ruhle that, being from the Midwest, he always watches the "Big Ten" conference, so he knew several of those teams would do well this year.

"Everyone in the in the Northeast watches the Big East and they watch the ACC," Cohn said. "They do not understand the quality of basketball that the Big Ten plays all year long."

So far, Cohn has made 45/63 correct picks.

It costs $10,000 to join Bloomberg's bracket challenge, and most of the participants are pretty big names on Wall Street. The winner will receive $360,000 for their charity of choice.

The other remaining contestants are Cleveland Cavaliers owner and Quick Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert and John Chambers, the CEO and chairman of Cisco Systems. Here's where you can keep score.

And here's Cohn explaining his picks, along with Rich Berlin, the director of the charity that Cohn supports:

Cohn's charity, Harlem RBI, builds charter schools and playgrounds and develops after-school and family programs for inner city youth. If he wins, the $360,000 will go toward expanding pre-kindergarten and other school programs and building a baseball field in the country's poorest congressional district, located in the South Bronx.

Cohn said he plans to watch this weekend's games with his oldest daughter, Chloe.

"I think my other two girls will have no idea there is basketball going on. And my wife will make sure she is nowhere near me," he said.