Up to now, one of the few claims to fame for the State University of New York at Albany has been to be named the No. 1 party school in America (So said The Princeton Review in 1998 and 2004.)

Now the Great Danes get to play as a 16 seed against the No. 1 seed UConn Huskies in the Washington, D.C., bracket of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Maybe SUNY-Albany should be called the "Sacrificial Lambs."

The Danes, who made it by virtue of winning the America East Conference championship, will play their first-round game Friday at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center in a nationally televised game on CBS.

We went there about a hundred years ago and were surprised to learn a thing or two in this Wikipedia article about our alma mater -- namely that actors Steve Guttenberg and Harold Gould are graduates, along with former Congresswoman Susan Molinari. And to our astonishment, San Francisco's first gay city supervisor Harvey Milk, who was gunned down in his office in 1978 by former supervisor Dan White (remember the "Twinkie defense"?) was a SUNY-Albany graduate in 1951.

Albany's own poet laureate and author of "Ironweed" William Kennedy used to be on the creative writing faculty.

Meanwhile, we're delighted (not to be too much of a hometowner about it) that the Lady Lobos are in the distaff side of the dance, opening against No. 6 seed Florida in Tucson on Saturday (see story here and brackets here). The UNM women's team is a No. 11 seed, even though they finished No. 24 in the nation in AP's final women's basketball poll, while the Gators weren't even in the top 25.

If the Lady Lobos make it past the first round, they get to play AP's No. 10 and 3 seed Baylor. But then they get to come home to The Pit in Albuquerque.

Go Lobas!