The Lady Griz have gotten a lot of help from their “friends” this season. Despite struggling mightily in conference play, and on the road in particular, they are still in the hunt for the top spot in the Big Sky Conference.

With two weekends of regular-season conference play left, surprising Eastern Washington still leads the pack with a 10-3 record and a two-game margin in the loss column over Portland State, the preseason favorite, and Montana, both at 8-5.

Only Northern Arizona and Weber State, with 10 losses apiece, are out of the post-season league tournament hunt. Talk about unfamiliar territory for those two teams!

Everybody else has a shot to make it to the post-season affair. Where Montana fits into the seeding picture depends on how the Lady Griz fare in their final three outings.

It starts with this Saturday afternoon’s home game against Montana State, a team the Lady Griz handled in Bozeman back on Jan. 23. After that, the Griz go on the dreaded road, albeit against bottom dwellers Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona.

After last weekend’s 100-83 loss at Sacramento State – a game with unwanted milestones like giving up 100 points for the first time in program history while losing to Sac State for the first time ever – it’s anybody’s guess how the Lady Griz will fare this weekend and beyond.

They badly need to find their shooting touch, and we’re not talking just outside shooting here. Even the area right under the basket has been a tough-score zone for Montana too often this season.

The inability to make even uncontested lay-ups early in the game at Sacramento State cost the Lady Griz a chance to build an early lead that might have changed the opposition’s mind set and approach for the rest of the game.

Other Big Sky teams have figured out that these are not the normal Lady Griz, giving them much more confidence than they’ve had in past years against Montana, even at Dahlberg Arena.

Montana State has fared well of late, and sits right behind Montana and Portland State in the standings.

What the Lady Griz can’t afford to lose is the support of their home fans. But that’s one thing that hasn’t changed during this season of struggles, even given the economy-caused downturn in attendance for both the UM men and women.

The Lady Griz fans who have been showing up at Dahlberg have been just as loyal and vociferous as ever.

They’re going to have to be Saturday if they want the Lady Griz to have any chance of gaining a first-round bye or decent seeding in the post-season tournament.

- Bill Schwanke

When the announcement came during Saturday afternoon’s Griz basketball romp over Sac State that Anthony Johnson had become the first player in UM men’s hoops history to score more than 1,000 career points in just two years, the senior guard received a standing ovation from the partisan crowd.

It’s odd, because that night I had someone tell me he would have been a much better player if he had shared the ball more with his teammates.

My immediate thought was twofold: first, Johnson was recruited because he could score, although I don’t think any of us realized what a scoring machine he would be. Second, Johnson was more than willing to share the ball with his teammates, more than willing to bust his butt on defense, and more than willing to take his share of the blame when the Grizzlies lost.

As I thought further about it, though, I realized what people might be missing is Anthony’s best trait of all: his leadership ability.

I’m not sure coaches anticipated that leadership would be part of the package when they signed him out of junior college in Washington two years ago. But what a bonus!

His leadership comes largely by example. Anthony’s not a rah-rah player, although he shows enthusiasm in everything he does on the court. He plays hard, doesn’t get many minutes of rest, and encourages his teammates. I think he’s been invaluable in bring talented freshman Will Cherry along.

The really scary thing about Anthony Johnson is how much his absence will be noticed next season and beyond.

Thanks for the good times, Anthony, those you’ve given us so far, and those yet to come as this season winds down.

- Bill Schwanke

A few days ago there was a piece in the paper about the NCAA cracking down on taunting, specifically when the taunt is performed by a player scoring a touchdown.

In the past, on those very rare occurrences when current taunting rules were actually enforced, the penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct by a scoring player usually was assessed on the extra point, which only mattered when a team might have been thinking about going for two points, or when a team had a shaky kicker.

The new proposal calls for the penalty to be a spot foul with the touchdown being disallowed.

Finally, some real teeth in a taunting rule.

Problem is, most football officials must have false teeth that they remove before working a game. Problem is, most NCAA rules against taunting are either unenforced or misenforced.

So will this new proposal even pass and, if so, will there be a meaningful attempt to actually enforce it? I’m not holding my breath. I would suggest that you not hold yours, either.

- Bill Schwanke

I don’t know what was harder to deal with Sunday afternoon – watching the Griz basketball team struggle for a half, rally back to take a solid lead, then struggle again down the stretch in a one-point loss to Eastern Washington,

OR,

the Altitude Sports telecast itself.

The two announcers were quick to jump on whichever bandwagon was rolling at any given time, oozing relentlessly over the Eagles during their strong first-half showing while wondering what in the world was wrong with Montana’s Anthony Johnson, then oozing relentlessly over Johnson when he took the game over in the second half, not having done enough research to know that he’s been a strong second-half presence – as have the Grizzlies as a team – much of the season.

The color commentator also was relentless in calling the Grizzlies Montana State for a major portion of the first half before someone mercifully corrected him. He slipped in another Montana State in the second half, but quickly corrected himself that time.

And then there were the obligatory name mispronunciations, such as muh-THEE-us instead of muh-THIGH-us Ward of Montana.

Finally, to top off a sterling effort, those in control decided to focus the camera on Eastern’s mascot sitting between the two announcers, missing some key baskets when the Eagles were rallying to regain the lead in the second half while the announcers chatted amiably with said mascot to the point of not even realizing that Eastern HAD retaken the lead.

Maybe these ESPN wannabes are just bored with having to lower themselves to do Big Sky Conference games. Who knows?

Whatever the case, it was painful to watch.

- Bill Schwanke

Fellow Missoulian employee Chris Arvish called my attention to this quote from a Spokane newspaper story about the ongoing “controversy” or discussion about Eastern Washington’s proposal to install red artificial turf at Woodward Field.

“If there is one reason on this entire planet that makes me feel certain we’re doing the right thing with this red turf project, it’s because Montana hates it.”

The comment was attributed to Marc Hughes, EWU’s associate athletic director for development. He’s the one who will be trying to raise enough dough to supplement the $500,000 contribution former EWU and current NFL star Michael Roos and his wife made to kick start the effort.

Talk about the Grizzly tail wagging the Eagle. But it’s not unusual to have what the Grizzlies say and do influence what other programs do.

EWU already has achieved one benefit from the proposal. The publicity has been worth its weight in turf, at least so far. Whether it’s worth enough to allay the fears of some that the turf, in time, might fade to pink – a fear that’s been countered by potential suppliers – time will tell.

If EWU really hopes to have the new turf installed by this fall, the money will have to show up sooner rather than later. There’s a lot of prep work that goes into removing natural grass and replacing it with fake, no matter what the color.

Other teams in the Big Sky and elsewhere can only hope the red rug doesn’t make Eastern’s football team better. It’s already tough enough.

To see the entire article, go to http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/feb/09/national-spotlight-on-eastern/

- Bill Schwanke

At least the travel situation promises to be easier for the Montana Grizzlies this week.

Thank goodness, because the games won’t be.

The Griz, fresh off an impressive home weekend of wins over league-leading Weber State and sometimes-nemesis Idaho State, now face road outings at Portland State Friday night and Eastern Washington Sunday afternoon.

Portland State likely is still smarting from the 90-58 pasting bestowed on the Vikings by the Grizzlies about a month ago in Missoula, and the Vikes are trying to stay alive for a top-two regular-season finish, as are the Grizzlies.

While it’s nice that the Griz will have a little extra time to get from Portland to Cheney – let’s hope they haven’t painted the entire Eastern basketball court red by then – they will have to avoid any kind of letdown regardless of Friday night’s result in the Rose City.

That’s because Eastern, no matter what the sport, counts any game with Montana as a big deal, even though this year’s Eagles are on the verge of being out of Big Sky Conference tournament contention.

So batten down the hatches, Grizzlies. You’re in for another interesting road weekend in the Big Sky Conference.

Let’s hope the toughness that the Griz displayed so abundantly last weekend is on display again this weekend.

- Bill Schwanke

I don’t know if fans have much understanding of how much goes into recruiting for college athletic teams, especially football where the numbers are so high.

While the proof is always in the pudding, it sure looks like new head coach Robin Pflugrad and his staff used the r0ughly three-week period they had to put together a whale of a recruiting class. I use the word whale because of the sheer size of some of the linemen who signed on the dotted line.

I like the size not only of the offensive linemen but also of the new wide receivers. And it sure looks like they’ve made serious strides to keep the quarterback position solid for a few years to come.

I also like the fact that physicality was a prime concern for incoming recruits, regardless of the positions they will play here. It’s something that Montana football has had, especially over the past 24 years, with some of the best blocks and hardest hits being leveled by some of the smaller players.

The never-ending need for increased team speed is something this staff obviously is well aware of, and something they addressed with this group as well.

I’m sure many people are disappointed with the small number of Montana kids signed with the main class (3 of 19), but don’t read that as a lack of interest on the part of Pflugrad or his assistants. They know how important it is to Montana fans to have Treasure State players on the roster and on the field.

Hopefully this year’s Montana “shortfall” will be addressed through the walk-on program, which has produced its fair share of stars for Grizzly football, the most notable of late being Marc Mariani.

I can’t wait for spring ball and the 2010 season!

- Bill Schwanke

I read a column from some newspaper that was written a couple of years ago that called the excitement surrounding college football signing day something like an overblown sham.

The writer’s reasoning was that teams continue to recruit well beyond the day NCAA football schools can officially announce who has signed letters of intent to come to their institutions and play.

But for University of Montana football fans, signing day has always provided a window to the future of a highly successful program. The real fans get a charge out of seeing who the young Griz will be, and many keep track of how many wind up being productive players and how many fade into the shadows.

This year’s signing day, like the first one for any new head coach, draws even more scrutiny, especially when the new guy follows a coach who had such a tremendous reputation as a recruiter.

But make no mistake. Robin Pflugrad has all of the tools it takes to recruit successfully: organizational skills, drive, and the ability to go into a recruit’s home, charm the socks off his parents, and close the deal.

The results sometimes don’t show up for a year or two, but there’s no reason to believe that – down the road – we’ll see stars on the field from this year’s class of recruits.

- Bill Schwanke

Life certainly has been interesting this season for veteran Montana Lady Griz head coach Robin Selvig, his assistants and their players.

That the team would be young was a given from the start. That replacing the highly productive guard line of Mandy Morales and Sonja Rogers would be tough was a given from the start.

That a lot would fall on the shoulders of all-purpose Lauren Beck and inside presence Sarah Ena was – you guessed it – a given from the start.

Questions about how three true freshmen would respond to playing early and often in their careers loomed large. But those questions might have been the ones most quickly answered.

The emergence of Katie Baker, Kenzie De Boer and Alyssa Smith happened quickly, especially for Baker, who established herself as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder before going down with a season-ending knee injury Jan. 8 at Eastern Washington.

De Boer and Smith, along with returnees Beck, Ena, Jessa Loman Linford, Stephanie Stender, Shadra Robison, Alexandra Hurley and Shante Nance-Johnson, all have elevated their games to make up for Baker’s loss.

At the core of giving this team a chance to win any game it goes into is that old Selvig staple, defense. When the Lady Griz are having trouble scoring, which is an ongoing problem again this season, they have consistently kept their opponents from burning up the nets and given themselves a chance to win.

The result of all of this? The Lady Griz are smack dab in the middle of the Big Sky Conference race, tied for second with preseason favorite Portland State, one game behind surprising Eastern Washington, which leads the league at 7-1.

So don’t count the Lady Griz out, even with five of their last eight league games on the road. If they can pick up wins at Weber State and Idaho State this weekend they will carry some strong momentum into their home stand against Portland State and Eastern Feb. 12-13.

They’ve handled pressure coming at them from a lot of angles so far this season. Let’s see if they can handle the pressure of a challenging stretch run.

I wouldn’t bet against them.

- Bill Schwanke

Probably not too many people realize the significance of the road sweep by the Montana Grizzlies last weekend.

They pulled off a nail biter at Northern Colorado Thursday night, then went into high gear in the second half at Flagstaff to bury a hot Northern Arizona team by 20 points Saturday night.

Northern Colorado had not lost a home game all season and still boasts the top overall mark in the Big Sky Conference this season at 18-5. The Bears turned around and outlasted Montana State Sunday afternoon.

Northern Arizona had struggled early this season, but had won seven of its previous nine games prior to being dismantled by the Grizzlies.

Even though the Montana men have fared well in Flagstaff in recent years, winning there is no easy chore for a number of reasons, but primarily because of how well coached the Lumberjacks are under Mike Adras.

The real question that remains, based on some of the ups and downs the Grizzlies have gone through this season (the game at Montana State just over a week ago comes to mind), is whether or not the team can maintain the intensity it has shown at times this season, particularly in the tough road environments of last weekend.

The answer will come sooner rather than later. The Griz take on league leader Weber State at home Friday night, and will play four of their last six conference games in the friendly confines of Dahlberg Arena, where Montana is 10-1 so far this season.

They need to buckle down in all areas to make a final push for a Big Sky tournament berth and have any chance at all to host the post-season event.

It is important to note that Montana’s mental and physical lapses have been fewer and farther between this season than in the previous two or three. They need to become virtually nonexistent as the league schedule winds down.

- Bill Schwanke