I know I should have done this much sooner, but hey, I’ve been really busy. But better late than never, as they say.

It was interesting, to say the least, to watch the Grizzly basketball team go toe to toe with New Mexico in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with virtually no scoring contribution from Anthony Johnson.

But Brian Qvale’s performance was – to quote some overly-hyped bald-headed guy – “off the charts, baby!”

Qvale, like Johnson in most cases, has shown himself to be a big-game performer. Three of his double-doubles this season came against Oregon, Washington and New Mexico, leaving many to ponder the kind of year he would have had if he had played that way every night out.

But Johnson certainly proved even the best players can have an off night. While it’s a little harder to tell on television, it seemed that – while the Lobos did a good job on him defensively – he still got shots like the ones he made against Weber State a few days earlier. They just didn’t go down against New Mexico.

Maybe there was a lot more pressure because of the stage and what he had done in Ogden. We’ll probably never know. Heck, Johnson probably can’t even explain it.

Even though it was sad to see Johnson go out the way he did, there are two things to think about.

One, the Grizzlies showed they could hang with a good basketball team with others picking up the slack for Johnson, something that bodes well for next season when he won’t be around. And two, had Johnson done even his usual thing, Qvale likely wouldn’t have scored as much. The outcome might have been just as close. But that’s just a guess.

Looking ahead to next season, the Grizzlies will likely have to spread the scoring load much more than they did this year with Johnson and Ryan Staudacher, two major contributors, graduating.

I look for Michael Taylor to get into the scoring mix more. Qvale still has unlimited potential going into his senior season. Derek Selvig, a junior next season, really played great basketball down the stretch. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he comes out of his next foot surgery with no hangover from it.

As for Will Cherry, just one piece of advice: shoot about 1,000 shots a day and about the same number of free throws. Man, if Cherry becomes an outside scoring threat and more consistent at the line along with all of the other things he can do, watch out!

Guys like Mathias Ward, Raason Young and Shawn Stockton made some strides this season as well.

As usual, it’s wait and see for someone like post player Eric Hutchison, who redshirted this season, and three incoming freshmen along with any others Wayne Tinkle and his staff may sign this spring.

But even without Anthony Johnson, the future appears bright for Grizzly basketball.

- Bill Schwanke

I’m old enough to remember watching the Montana Grizzlies play New Mexico in men’s basketball.

Growing up in the 50s, we made most of Montana’s home basketball games, and a few on the road, too. There was no women’s program to speak of in those days. If there was a team, we didn’t speak of it, and we didn’t go watch.

Montana belonged to the Skyline Conference back then, and fared much better in basketball than it did in football, picking up its share of wins against the likes of Utah, Utah State, BYU, Wyoming, Colorado State, Denver University and New Mexico.

The Grizzlies – coached during that span of years by Jiggs Dahlberg and Frosty Cox – enjoyed as much or more success against New Mexico as it did against any other Skyline team, winning 16 of 23 games through 1962, sweeping the match-up in seven of the 12 seasons the teams played, and being swept only twice during that time.

But that was then, and this is now.

When the Grizzlies face the Lobos Thursday night in San Jose, Calif., they’ll be battling a much different animal than they played some 50 years ago.

But so will the Lobos.

For Montana, the formula is simple. Show up ready to play.

If the Grizzlies do that, and don’t bring imposters to the arena and have to send the bus back for the real team at halftime like coach Wayne Tinkle said they did at Ogden, Utah last week, they’ll have a shot.

And wouldn’t win number 17 over the Lobos be just grand!

- Bill Schwanke

It didn’t take it long to come up in conversation these days that Montana’s remarkable comeback against Weber State Wednesday night wasn’t the first such occurrence in recent memory.

Just ask the South Dakota State football team.

If you’re old and memory challenged like me, the Griz gridders were down 48-21 late in the third quarter of that playoff game and roared back to win 61-48.

It was in large part the Marc Mariani show.

Jump ahead about 3 1/2 months to Ogden, Utah, where the Grizzly basketball team trailed by as many as 22 points, and by 20 at the half, before they came back to win 66-65.

It was in major part the Anthony Johnson show as he outscored Weber State 34-25 himself in the final 20 minutes.

Neither game was for the faint of heart if you’re a Griz fan. But what a treat to have witnessed both of these remarkable comebacks, either live or in person.

Both are great examples of why you play the entire game and don’t call it quits just because a team is “too far behind.”

One thing that would be just about as interesting is an NCAA tourney match-up between Montana and Villanova. Especially the Grizzlies are sent to Spokane for the first round.

- Bill Schwanke

I wonder how many people quit watching last night’s Griz game at halftime.

I thought about it.

It’s hard to come up with adjectives to describe how the Griz played, especially Anthony Johnson, in the  second half of the Big Sky tournament championship game. Somehow words like unbelievable and exhilarating just don’t seem to cut it.

Adjectives for the first half come a little more easily: discouraging, disgusting, embarrassing.

You always have to worry when a team has to come back from such a large deficit that the players have to expend so much energy to catch up that they’ll run out of gas at the end.

But in Montana’s case Wednesday night, they didn’t expend much energy in the first half, and they caught up so quickly in the second that end-of-game energy didn’t seem to be an issue.

It was somewhat ironic that my son and I had talked earlier in the day about Johnson’s ability to score pretty much any time he wants and recognize when he really has to, even though it’s obvious that one of his priorities is to be a team player.

Last night being a team player meant carrying most of the offensive load.

While his performance was almost surreal (his word), what can’t be lost is the contributions other Grizzly players made in other areas.

Derek Selvig capped his progression into a truly outstanding player with a solid game at both ends of the court. Brian Qvale quietly grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked six shots.

Ryan Staudacher played 39 minutes, and while he didn’t score much – but then who did besides Johnson and Selvig – he drew some of Weber’s defensive attention away from Johnson and applied himself at the defensive end.

Will Cherry didn’t score a point and played just 22 minutes because of early foul trouble, but his huge defensive play on Damian Lillard at the end of the game was typical for him.

Besides a lousy first half, the stat sheet shows what else Montana had to overcome:

The Griz had 20 turnovers, the bulk of them in the first half, while Weber State had just 10. The Wildcats went to the free throw line 33 times compared to 17 by Montana.

Fortunately 12 of the Wildcats’ free throws were shot by Franklin Session, who missed seven including two crucial ones at the end of the game.

Three Griz players shot free throws, while eight went to the line for the Wildcats. The Grizzlies wound up 14 for 17, with Johnson making all 14. The Wildcats were 22 for 33, almost enough to make up for making fewer field goals than the Grizzlies.

I’ve watched more Grizzly basketball games over the past 50-plus years than I’d care to admit, but I honestly can’t remember another like Wednesday night’s, especially in terms of the sharp contrast between halves.

The only thing better would be to have been there in person.

- Bill Schwanke

Watching the Montana Grizzlies outlast Northern Colorado Tuesday finally brought into focus for me what has been an ongoing problem for the Griz this season.

They seem too ready to relax when things are going well.

It happened twice against Northern Colorado, and the second case nearly cost Montana its berth in Wednesday’s Big Sky tournament championship game against Weber State.

The first drop-off in intensity happened early in the game when the Grizzlies jumped out to an 11-3 lead with 15:05 left in the first half. The Bears, to their credit, took advantage of Montana’s lapse in intensity and went on an 18-4 run to lead 21-15 about seven minutes later.

To Montana’s credit, the Griz clawed back to lead by one at the half.

Then Montana jumped out to a 14-point lead with eight minutes left. It was huge, because the game had been pretty tight throughout.

I don’t remember ever seeing a Grizzly basketball team, or any other basketball team for that matter, give up a lead so quickly.

With eight minutes to go in the game Montana led 57-43. Four minutes later the game was tied at 60. Too fast, and too easy, for UNC.

It’s hard to be critical of a team that is 21-9 and on the verge of winning a Big Sky title and an NCAA berth.

But the Griz can’t afford ANY lapses in concentration and/or intensity if they hope to beat Weber State, especially on the Wildcats’ home floor.

If Montana plays with intensity, is aggressive on offense and tight but not too aggressive on defense, and hits the boards, a title and NCAA berth can be the result. But we’ve seen that intensity and concentration fail to surface at the strangest times (both MSU games for example), so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

- Bill Schwanke

We’ve heard it before. Win or go home.

The Montana Grizzlies and the Montana Lady Griz took very different paths to the semifinals of their respective Big Sky Conference tournaments this week.

The Grizzlies, at times playing like the best team in the conference, wound up with only a No. 4 seed due to some bumps in the road at Bozeman, Pocatello and Cheney along with their home beating at the hands of Montana State to wind up the regular season.

But they blasted Northern Arizona in a home-game quarterfinal Saturday and, thanks to the Cats losing at home to Portland State, will face Northern Colorado Tuesday evening in the semifinals rather than regular-season champ Weber State on its home court.

Portland State gets that pleasure, and the Wildcats had better be ready. But then, so had the Grizzlies.

The Lady Griz needed a lot of help, but thanks to the tie-breaker system wound up with a second seed despite a 10-6 league record.

That put them in a three-way tie for second with surprising Sacramento State and Idaho State, while Portland State, the pre-season favorite, struggled to a 9-7 conference mark and wound up tied for fifth with Montana State.

While the Grizzlies know who they will face Tuesday because the men play quarterfinal games on home courts rather than at the tourney site, the Lady Griz won’t know until Thursday’s quarterfinals at Cheney, Wash., are complete.

They will get the highest remaining seed out of match-ups between No. 3 Sac State and No. 6 seed Montana State, or No. 4 Idaho State and No. 5 Portland State. Given the season Montana has had, there are no guarantees of success or failure regardless of which team it draws.

For the Griz and Lady Griz it will come down to whether or not they’re just happy to be there, and some breaks. Based on overall talent level and how the regular season went, the men seem to have the best chance.

But after all, this is March Madness.

- Bill Schwanke

One of the options the University of Montana is looking at to alleviate its economy-induced budget woes is cutting the number of out-of-state scholarships that could be offered to prospective athletes.

It’s an attractive thought to some because five in-state scholarships can be offered for the same cost as two out-of-state ones.

But can UM realistically compete in the Big Sky Conference using only in-state athletes, and can it compete nationally in football under that scenario?

The answer is a resounding, “No,” as much as fans of using in-state athletes (and I’m one of them) would like to think so. While the state produces a lot of good athletes from its small population, and while those athletes generally have a work ethic and desire second to none, it’s simply not realistic.

And if, or when, UM is forced to leave the Football Championship Subdivision for the Football Bowl Subdivision of the NCAA (or I-AA for I-A for us purists), limiting out-of-state aid would only increase the damage done to the competitiveness of Grizzly teams.

There was a time when the University System authorized a fairly large number of so-called fee waivers which basically gave member schools the option to offer out-of-state scholarships at the cost of in-state aid. While athletics used a hefty share of those, they were available to other students as well.

Resurrecting fee waivers might be another option University System officials could consider. Regardless, they need to find a solution other than limiting out-of-state scholarships, because less competitive teams, especially in the sports of football and basketball, will mean smaller crowds, dwindling ticket revenue, and . . . need I go on?

- Bill Schwanke

I stopped by to pick up tickets for this Saturday night’s first-round Big Sky Conference men’s tournament play-in game between Montana and Northern Arizona, and wasn’t really surprised that sales are slow.

That’s because I was on hand last Saturday night when the Griz laid an egg in their loss to Montana State.

Two huge end-of-season crowds – almost 7,000 were there last Saturday night and more than 6,000 watched the Bobcats dismantle the Griz in 2009’s first-round tournament game – saw basically the same thing both times.

What many of them can’t figure out is why.

The possible reasons are numerous: one team simply outplays and outhustles the other team; the Grizzlies came out either flat or perhaps too tight for whatever reason; they were facing an opponent that had beaten them twice in a row counting last year’s finale and this season’s game earlier in Bozeman, another sub-par effort by the Grizzlies that appeared to have turned them around; Senior Night; the lack of playing time for center Brian Qvale, reportedly knocked down by strep throat; and, the one fans always like to fall back on, poor coaching.

And there’s always the possibility that a combination of factors played into Montana’s sub-par performance against the Bobcats.

But in more fairness to the fans than I usually like to grant, it’s tough to respond to more hype for crowd support when, as demonstrated by the last two home games against the Cats, they show up and the team doesn’t, for whatever reasons.

But like they say, the ones who really care will be there Saturday night, not because of what the team did in its last outing or what its record is, but because they are loyal and want to do whatever they can to show support.

So Grizzlies, when you play Saturday night, don’t play so much to or for the crowd. Play with pride in yourselves, and play to win. After all, team members really have no one else to answer to than themselves and each other.

A win Saturday night will mean a semifinal match-up against regular-season champion Weber State on its home floor, and it will mean a 20-win season. Those things should be more than enough to get a team ready to play, regardless of other factors.

- Bill Schwanke