Florida Gulf Coast University EAGLES

The FGCU Eagles have soared into the Sweet 16, the first #15 seed to ever do so, and America can't get enough of their high-flying, slamma jamma style of play. If you haven't seen them yet, take a look at this dunk compilation on Deadspin. Wow.

Go Eagles!

EDIT: Evidently their students live in dorms overlooking a beach. That ought to make recruiting easy.

TDZ March Madness - Kirk Triumphs Yet Again

It was a wild rollercoaster in the inaugural TDZ March Madness tournament. Here's the final leaderboard:

Kirk: 45-18, 127 points

Lore: 35-28, 105 points

Scotty: 32-31, 102 points

Troi: 38-25, 72 points

Spock: 36-27, 66 points

Congratulations to Kirk (aka Matt-O), who was nearly the wire-to-wire winner, falling into second place only briefly until Kentucky took the title. As the grand prize winner, he's entitled to a free TDZ blog post of his choosing! Holy moly!!

Oh, did I win? This is just how I pose normally, I can't keep track of all the winning.

I earned a respectable but meaningless second place finish, while Scotty was the real story of the tournament, surging from the cellar to the top of the standings at warp speed in the late rounds, but Kansas ultimately let him down. Troi and Spock meanwhile had already traveled back to Betazed and Vulcan respectively.

Thanks to all who participated! Now back to your continuing missions.

TDZ March Madness Leader Board - The Final (4) Frontier

Just 3 games remain for the contenders, but already the final standings are coming into focus. Kirk is chasing TDZ immortality and just needs a Kentucky championship to clinch it, but look who's poised for a comeback: Scotty!

No, cheers to you, laddy!

TDZ March Madness Leader Board - Sour 16

Two rounds of action are in the books, and look who's back from the dead: Spock!

Kirk: 37-11, 47 points

Spock: 31-17, 42 points

Troi: 32-16, 40 points

Lore: 27-21, 33 points

Scotty: 22-26, 30 points

Not so fast, Jim. It's Jim, right? My body was just regenerated by the Genesis matrix, you know how it is.

Logic dictates that the top seeds advance, but ultimately the Vulcan's selection of Duke in the finals will be his undoing. The other highlight for me is Scotty picking NC State to reach the Sweet 16. At this point, there's a serious possibility that the engineer will make a come back and put me in dead last, bringing shame upon Dr. Soong's programming.

TDZ March Madness Leader Board - Round of 32

Just one round of games in the books and already we're seeing some disparity between the brackets. Here's the standings as of right now:

Kirk: 25-7, 25 points

Troi: 24-8, 24 points

Data Lore: 21-11, 21 points

Spock: 20-12, 20 points

Scotty: 14-18, 14 points

Kirk is in the captain's chair right now, and his shields are holding following the opening salvos from Norfolk State and Lehigh since he had Missouri and Duke failing to reach the Sweet 16 anyways. My original speculation of space-time hacking is gaining legitimacy.

It's still early, don't get cocky.

Troi had a strong first round as well, but her Elite 8 was rocked by the dual 15 seed upsets. Only a championship run by Michigan State will do the job, but with the remaining depth in the West division, might I suggest pre-arranging some counseling sessions to overcome the disappointment.

These 15 seeds are driving me crazy!

Yes, that's right, I tricked you all. I'm actually Lore, Data's snickering, contraction-wiedling, emotionally unstable brother. And as I'm teetering on the brink right now, I'm more motivated than ever to kill all biological life... through snide remarks, lethal satire and Star Trek references!

I'm an android on the edge and I'm firing at Will!

Of my friend Spock, I can only say this: of all the brackets I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.

If only there was a Genesis device for brackets.

Scotty brings up the rear with a truly busted bracket. With a ship this beyond repair, I suggest crashing into the nearest Dyson Sphere and hiding yourself in your transporter's pattern buffer for decades until no one remembers your ignominy.

See you in 75 years!

TDZ's March Madness - To Boldly Go...

Thanks to all the contributors to the first March Madness Melee here at TDZ! Now that I have some competition in the bracketology department, you enter upon a brave new world for my blog. It's a land where hubris is cheap, and the local currency is tears.

Without further ado, let's introduce the contenders:

Call for Submissions

The NCAA tournament will tip off later this week, and this year I'm letting everyone in on the madness -TDZ style.

Last year, I posted my strategy, along with all of my brazen first round picks (part 1, part 2), but blogging doesn't have to be a 1-way street called Blowhard Boulevard. This year, I encourage all of my readers to submit their brackets and see who comes away the champion of the Danger-sphere. I believe you all have my email...

WARNING: Brackets may be subject to snide comments and snorts of derision.

Cinderella's Killer Heels Part 2 - The Fancy Reckoning

Making these picks isn't as easy as it looks. I've been flying solo ever since the information in a Grays Sports Almanac I found out in Cali in 1985 expired in 2000. Man, people had no idea what the future would look like back in the '80s. I'm still holding out hope for Blade Runner to pan out though.

Anyways - more picks after the cut!

March Madness: Cinderella's Killer Heels

We've all been beaten before by people (girls) who pick winners based on which uniforms are the prettiest. Shockingly, it's not a bad theory: the best basketball programs produce the greatest amount of revenue, which in turn is used for premium uniforms and careful color coordination and logo design.

In my opinion, the best way to make picks is to incorporate the fashion strategy into an end-of-season information blitz. By ignoring the ups and downs of a long season, you can take a look at the teams as a whole and not get caught up on recent successes or failures. With this arbitrary strategy, I present my picks for Round 1: