By ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Columnist

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March Madness became an Aggie tradition last season when the men's and women's teams made their second straight appearances in the NCAA Tournaments.

Now it's becoming an annual treasure.

The Aggie men are in Anaheim, Calif., where they could face No. 1 seed UCLA in the second round. There's always at least one Cinderella in the Sweet 16. Could it be A&M?

The Aggie women are headed to Baton Rouge seeded No. 2 in the Oklahoma City Regional. It's the highest seeding in the program's history.

How crazy would it be in Bryan and College Station if we have a pair of Sweet 16 teams?

We'll try to add some spark to basketball talk around the office water coolers with The Eagle's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Sweet 16 Prognosticator Panel.

We're going to pick 63 games, and you can join us at www.aggiesports.com, comparing your picks to our celebrities' picks or, of much more importance, taking your shot at beating Wonder Dog Buddy Cessna. Yes, he's bilingual. He can pick football or basketball games.

Because there will be more games before the panel appears in the paper next Thursday, the panel's second-round picks will be updated on our Web site. When you cover multiple of successful programs, you need multiple media outlets.

You'll love our panelists -- at least most of them. They know their basketball.

Former A&M men's basketball players headlining the 16 mammals are Bob Gobin and Joe Wilbert.

Bob was a three-year lettermen for the Aggies (1971-73), serving as co-captain his senior season when A&M finished second in league play. Then Bob was a gradudate assistant before becoming a full-time assistant from 1974-80.

Joe, who was an all-state player at Bryan High, was an all-conference player for the Aggies in 1994 and '95. He ended his career with 1,123 points.

Gobin and Wilbert were great players, but they have a tough act to follow as prognosticators. Randy Matson was a tri-champion on last year's inaugural basketball panel along with Shawn Andaya-Pulliam and yours truly. (Notice, we didn't invite Matson or Andaya-Pulliam back this season ... they were too good).

We've recruited two powerful women in A&M president Elsa Murano and senior forward Katy Pounds from the Aggie women's team.

Elsa has become a big basketball fan since arriving in Aggieland, attending as many men's and women's games as possible. She also is not going to have someone make her picks for her, proving she can make those tough decisions.

Katy is part of A&M's senior class that turned the women's program around in a huge way. Unfortunately, knee surgeries forced her to take a medical redshirt this season, but you can see her coaching on the sidelines during practices and games. The sharpshooter from Shallowater has been invaluable as a player and coach.

Since we all can't be famous former or current student-athletes, we've recruited some of the area's biggest basketball fans led by Buppy Simank, who has catered more meals than North Carolina has basketball fans.

Because Aggie basketball has become a luxury program, we've included three car dealers from Derek Scott's Auto Park -- Brian, David and Derek Scott, who also happen to be our sponsors. They think all Aggie fans should ride in luxury during March Madness.

Since business owner Larry Hodges was so good during his rookie season picking football games, maybe he'll be good in basketball (and maybe not). We've also included Prog Panel king Chip Howard. The Sportstalk host is coming off a 13th-place finish in football. Of course, he blamed it on Dennis Franchione.

We've included the usual suspects from The Eagle led by editor Donnis Baggett, who won the football championship this season for his first Prog title. He couldn't go Florida Gators on us, could he?

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.

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