Listen To Me Now, Believe Me Later On: The Tournament Squares Pool

What a Friday, am I right? So much was going on. More opening weekend baseball, the women's NCAA tournament (how about Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo), the playoff race in the NBA, the tanking race in the NBA and Gary Woodland's 63 at the Houston Open.

There was also the return of Duke's Caleb Foster leading a 15 point second half comeback to knock off a really good St. John's team, UConn surviving Michigan State and the juggernaut Michigan Wolverines rolling on. 

However, the most important thing that happened yesterday was the continued validation of your tournament host. Fifteen years ago, I realized that we were watching one of the great soap operas of our time. A long, epic tale of a sports hero falling from grace. And mostly by his own doing. It started with loss in the 2009 PGA Championship to Y.E. Yang and over the next several years, we found out about Perkins waitresses and seal team training and the pills and Elin's capabilities with a 9-iron. The 2010's Tiger Woods saga was a near Shakespearean tragedy. 

So, how have I been validated?

I wrote in this blog in the winter of 2011 that Tiger Woods was done. Done as the most dominant athlete of his generation. Done in his pursuit to rewrite all of golf's records. 

And today when we see him, he is likely to give us a flash of the genius that we remember, but he is also as likely to do something so self-destructive that we can't believe he was ever the greatest golfer any of us had ever seen.

What a day. What a 15 years. What a career. See you at the U.S. Senior Open in Columbus OH this summer. Tiger has submitted his application to play in July assuming he is not in jail in Florida.

The Sweet 16 is now complete, and the two best teams in this tournament (Arizona and Michigan) are rolling on. They are joined by Duke and UConn, who I can't believe have to play in a regional final, three additional Big10 teams and Tennessee(?). 

The squares pool is continuing to reward players with multiple victories, and your tournament host is now officially angry. Here are the winners from Friday.

On to the Elite 8 and hopefully a showing for the host. The rewards are now starting to get real.

--Your Tournament Host