Lady Griz hit the road to defend conference title

by Troy Warzocha | March 11, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

In a dimly-lit and empty Dahlberg Arena, Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig grabbed a ball and started shooting free throws with true freshman forward Alyssa Smith before the rest of the team arrived for practice Wednesday.

Selvig drained the first two easily, missed his third attempt, but got right back on the horse, making the next three.

The coach’s demeanor was the polar opposite of what most people tend to see on game day. He was as loose and relaxed as any coach with more than 700 wins and 20 banners hanging in the rafters of the arena could be.

It’s no wonder why the Lady Griz are the best free-throw-shooting team in the Big Sky.

For Montana, this is usually the time of year when the Lady Griz get to sleep in their own beds and wait for the rest of the conference playoff teams to arrive in Missoula. But on Wednesday, the ladies trickled out of the locker room and were greeted with a table and a sign-up sheet for food to eat during their Thursday bus ride to Cheney, Wash.

The table symbolizes a harsh reality for the Lady Griz. For the first time since 2006, they will not be playing for a conference title on their home court in front of 6,000 rabid Montana basketball fans.

“The nice thing about being here (in Missoula) is, first of all, we love our crowd and, second of all, logistically it’s good,” Selvig said. “But going to Eastern (Washington) is as good as it could be because it’s not that far and, obviously, getting the bye helped.”

The Lady Griz go into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will await the highest-seeded team to come out of the quarterfinals, but that doesn’t mean they are preparing any less or focusing on any one team.

“We’re just practicing, trying to get a little better this week in our couple practices,” Selvig said. “(Our opponent) will be someone we’ve played twice so it’s not like it’s going to take a lot of time. Everybody’s familiar with each other.”

The opponents for the Lady Griz will either be No. 3 Sacramento State, No. 4 Idaho State, or No. 5 Portland State depending on how the games play out. The only team the Lady Griz will not face under any circumstance is No. 6 Montana State.

The Lady Griz have had mixed success against their three potential adversaries this season.  They swept Idaho State, earned a home-and-home split with Sacramento State, and were swept by Portland State.

“If you think about it, Portland and Sac are close in how they play with their one-the-line, up-the-line type defense. They’re all pretty much playing the same type of defense,” said senior guard Shaunte Nance-Johnson. “We haven’t really seen anything different. I think Idaho is the only one that may drop back into a zone at moments versus those other three teams that are up-in-your-face-type defenses.”

Nance-Johnson is in a unique situation because as she prepares for the women’s tournament, she has watched her husband, Grizzly all-conference senior guard Anthony Johnson, play in the men’s conference tournament in Ogden, Utah.

Watching Anthony play on Saturday against Northern Arizona and Tuesday against Northern Colorado has made Nance-Johnson anxious to get back on the court.

“We’re just ready to see (the men’s) outcome, but then also have our own personal outcome,” Nance-Johnson said. “I’m looking forward to both (Anthony and I) going to the NCAA Tournament together and I’m looking forward to trying to be the first married couple to play in the NCAA Tournament at the same time.”

Nance-Johnson is one of three seniors on a team that has been there and done that. But this season also featured a lot more youthful faces than usual.

“I think the (freshmen) are hungry to get to the (NCAA Tournament),” Nance-Johnson said. “I can see some freshmen stepping up and having big games and the people that have been there, they want to get back to that situation.”

The Lady Griz came into this season with a lot of questions and a lot of youth. However, this is still a program that has won the conference tournament the last two seasons and knows what it takes to make it to the field of 64.

Even though the Lady Griz won’t be sleeping in their own beds this time, there are no excuses for coming out of this weekend with anything less than a conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, Nance-Johnson said.

“All I know so far out of the years I’ve been here,” she said, “is you go to the NCAA Tournament, you win the Big Sky, you get your ring and that’s how you do.”

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