Don't mess with Mr. Woods

Tiger Woods took on Stephen Ames in the 1st round of the Accenture Match Play Championship. This is what Ames had to say before the match:

"Anything can happen, especially where Tiger's hitting the ball."

Ok, it wasn't the most insulting quote, but still: Why say it, because you know what 's coming, and boy did it come. Tiger beat Ames 9 and 8. For all of you unfamiliar with match play, beating someone 9 and 8 is the equivalent of winning a baseball game by mercy rule after 4 innings.

After the match, here's what Tiger had to say:

Reporter: "Had you seen what Ames said."
Tiger: "Yes."

Reporter: "Did it motivate you?"
Tiger: "Yes."

Reporter: "Would you care to elaborate?"
Tiger: "No."

Reporter: "Do you have any other thoughts?"
Tiger: "9 and 8."

Now, you would think after that, everyone now knows not to say anything at all. But Robert Allenby, Tiger's next opponent, said, "Well, there's no way he's going to beat me 9 and 8..."

Robert, better make sure you get a good practice session in because that's the most golf you're going to be playing tomorrow.

Let's talk hoops, whoo I'm fired up after that Tiger story, I love it!!!

• Miami won their 7th straight, taking co-MAC leader Akron by 3 in a tight one. Josh Hausfeld came out smokin and hit 5 threes. Timmy Pollitz brought the boys back from behind with some key buckets in the last 7 minutes, and Nathan Peavy provided the exclamation point with a dunk at the end. Next for Miami is a trip to Kent to play the other MAC leader. Miami is 16-8, 12-3 in the MAC.
• Duke didn't look good tonight in their win at Georgia Tech. JJ Redick was held to 5/21 shooting, though he still managed 22 points (11/12 at the line). It was Shelden Williams's 26 points and 11 boards that were the difference. I'm telling ya, you want to beat Duke, you have to stop Shelden Williams.
• Indiana's faint NCAA hopes are still alive after their come from behind win over Penn St. But only beating the Nittany Lions by 4 at home isn't going to convince many people you're tournament-worthy.
• Tennessee is pretty much assured of the #1 seed in the SEC tourney after holding off Florida in Gainesville. What a play by Dane Bradshaw at the end. Tie game with 30 sec or so left, Florida ball. Corey Brewer does the worst thing you could possibly do. He throws a lazy bounce pass back toward his own basket to a teammate who's running away from him. Bradshaw stole the ball, made a pretty spin move in the lane and scored putting UT ahead. Florida jacked up a 3 and missed, Tennessee hit 2 free throws and it was over.
• Big win for Ohio St. over Michigan St. in East Lansing tonight. I'm not a huge Ohio St. fan, but I have to admit, I like watching Thad Matta and his boys play (although I couldn't watch tonight, game wasn't televised here in Detroit for some reason, boooo). They can shoot (46% from 3), play smart (just 9 turnovers), and play team ball (28 field goals, 20 assists).
• Bradley is making a legitimate case for NCAA consideration. At the UNI Dome tonight, they smoked Northern Iowa 71-49!!!!! And congrats to the Valley for being able to show their conference tourney championship on CBS. Talk about validation. Besides the NCAA tourney, I'd love to see the Big East and Missouri Valley this year.
• In Raleigh, North Carolina 95, NC State 71. Woooow. North Carolina and Kansas are so young, but they have great coaches and great talent. It will be interesting to see how far they go in March.

I invested in an MP3 player today. My walkman no longer works after just a year. But if you think about it, out of the 365 days or so I had it, I probably used it at least 200 days. It was a good walkman, many great runs I had with it.

I was flipping around on TV and watched a little American Idol. What is the deal with the guy singing Barry Manilow?!?!!? He was a good singer, but Barry Manilow!?!?!? I couldn't help but laugh at this guy, Barry Manilow?!?!!?

On my way back to the apartment, I passed a Scientology church haha. If Tom and Katie are ever in town, I'll know where to find them.

If you notice, I said "back to the apartment" and not "home". It's tough calling my apartment "home". It's tough not calling Ohio "home". I feel like I do home a disservice if I call my apartment home. My freshman RA said something that's stuck with me, "You know you've grown up when you call the new place you're living, whether it be school or where you get your first job, home. And it hits you even harder when you call your new home "home" in front of your parents." It hits me every day.

Does anyone really care that Lindsay Lohan no longer wants to be called a "teen queen"???? There are just a few more important stories out there.

One of which is the brewing controversy over President Bush wanting to give commercial control of 6 US ports to a firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Some are fearful we're letting terrorists into the country and that our ports won't be safe and we're outsourcing jobs and yadda yadda yadda. President Bush has threatened to veto any congressional legislation that blocks the deal and I agree with him. Not only would this be discrimination, but it would hurt the economy in the long run. By blocking the deal, we're pretty much telling the world we're heading back toward being an isolationist economy. Our and the global business cycle would become more unstable, increasing the likelihood that our recessions would become more severe. In addition, the Dubai firm would only have COMMERCIAL (the actual transactions) rights to ports. The Coast Guard and Navy would still provide security for the ports. Of course, if you listen to people like Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, you'd think the world would be coming to an end.

That is all, g'night.