Open and Shut Case
Posted June 16, 2008, 8:47 PM ET

Tiger Woods has won his share of golf tournaments throughout the world, but he will be able to look back at his work on the cliffs of La Jolla and smile.

He has never won a more grueling tournament than the recently completed 2008 U.S. Open. It took 91 holes at Torrey Pines for the world's best player to survive and win his third U.S. Open championship. The event was simply captivating on television, as Woods' guts and brilliance took over at the most opportune times.

It was apparent from day one that Tiger didn't have his surgically-repaired left knee fully up to speed. He limped, grimaced and gutted it out under the pressure of a national championship. Usually, Tiger can beat the rest of the PGA Tour with one arm tied behind his back...now he had to do it with only one leg as well.

After finally putting away Rocco Mediate on the first hole of sudden death, Woods proclaimed that this was his toughest test and most satisfying victory. He earned it....boy, did he ever.

There's no telling when we'll see him play again. He stated he plans on taking some time off to rest mentally and physically. Hopefully, he will be at 100% when the next major championship takes place at the British Open in July.

I'm not sure he can top the drama of Saturday's incredible finish, or Sunday's pressure-packed 12-footer to send the tournament into an eighteen hole playoff...but either way, the world will await Tiger's next act on his way to capturing Jack Nicklaus' record of eighteen major titles.

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While Tiger was working away at Torrey Pines, another superstar in the world of sports was also working on fumes. His name: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

The relief on Dale's face was priceless as he finally wrestled away a streak that had been haunting him for over two years. Junior's win at Michigan snapped a 76-race winless streak and it gave the boys from Hendrick Motorsports reason to celebrate again in Victory Lane.

Junior's move to Hendrick has been well documented and the pressure to perform has been obvious from day one. Despite a decent start to the race weeks in Daytona, it had been over two years (May 6, 2006 to be exact) since Dale, Jr. had found a win in a Sprint Cup points race.

The consistency has been in place all season, but the victory column was feeling lonely...until Michigan.

I was surprised at how many people emailed me during my radio show whining about the way Junior won the race. Give me a break....it's not the guy with the fastest car that always wins the race. Dale, Jr. and his crew took a gamble late in the race and it paid off.

While Kyle Busch has been a breath of fresh air to the sport, it was imperative that the sport's most popular driver find a way to win a race...any race. You can now all relax. Dale, Jr. has a win and some confidence to go after a Sprint Cup championship.

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Tar Heel Nation is fired up, and they should be pumped. I'm not talking about the UNC baseball team that is still alive and kicking in the College World Series. I'm talking about the announcement that all three Tar Heel underclassmen (Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington) are returning to Roy Williams' loaded basketball squad.

I'm not so sure that UNC's second team could be the ACC's second best team for the upcoming 2008-09 basketball season. When you take into account that Roy Williams has another top-rated recruiting class that joins a fully-stocked lineup of a team that lost only three games and made it to the Final Four...watch out.

I know some ACC foes will claim that UNC has "too much talent", but that's a cop-out. I'd rather have too many quality players than a team loaded with mediocre talent.

While it is too early to talk college hoops, there is no question that everybody in the ACC will be playing for second place. It appears that Wake, Clemson and Duke should be in that battle.

Speaking of Duke, I wonder how many Blue Devil fans are concerned that while UNC is stocking up with great players, their coach is spending quality time away from the school in preparation of Team USA trying to win a gold medal in China?

I've been harping on this fact for years. Coach K is a brilliant coach with an awesome program. The reason Duke is in this position is because Krzyzewski and his staff and spent endless hours building and maintaining their position in the college basketball food chain. When your leader decides to accept a new challenge such as undertaking USA Basketball's return to gold, it takes away from the full-time approach to his very own Duke program.

The results say it all. Duke has a very good basketball program, but it used to be the best. Right now, it's not even the best one in their own state. If the Blue Devils get smacked around by UNC again this upcoming ACC hoops season and are pushed to the limit by Wake Forest, then it will be more than apparent that Coach K and his program need to be tweaked. You don't get better by taking time off and working on other jobs. Hopefully the USA squad will bring home the gold before Coach K gets back to the battles on Tobacco Road.

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The NBA Finals will hopefully come to an end.

There is a chance that could happen this week...which is a good thing, since rumor has it that the upcoming regular season starts sometime in July.

I'm surprised how much better the Celtics are than the Lakers. Granted, the series stands at 3-2 in favor of Boston at the time of this post, and the Lakers could make history by winning the last three games and hence the world title....but I'm not counting on it.

While Kobe Bryant is the league's MVP, it is obvious that the best player on the court in this match-up has been Paul Pierce. The Kansas Jayhawk has been great on both ends of the floor and certainly the catalyst to the Celtics' inspired efforts in the Finals.

I think after watching all the replays of the 80's showdowns between the Lakers and Celtics, it has been glaring how much better the players and teams were twenty years ago than they are today. It's also unfortunate that the black cloud which is Tim Donaghy has overshadowed some of the play on the court, too.

I just hope the Celtics can put an end to the series and the season. They've proven they are the best team.....now they need to give all of us a rest from pro hoops before we celebrate the July 4th holiday.