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Montana-New Mexico Preview

Mar 18, 2010 - 4:21 PM By JANIE McCAULEY AP Sports Writer

Montana (22-9) at New Mexico (29-4), 9:40 p.m. EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- New Mexico's Darington Hobson is already predicting a run to the regional final for a bunch of NCAA tournament first-timers. His Montana counterpart, Anthony Johnson, made it known the Grizzlies expected a first-round date with a high-profile Big East Conference school and not somebody from the mid-major Mountain West.

These two star players will take center stage when their teams play in a first-round game of the East Regional on Thursday night, each providing a bit of bulletin-board material for the other.

"They get a little bit giddy," Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said. "It's still part of the deal."

"The bulletin board stuff's fun," New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. "We're not the Big East. We've said it all year long: We're New Mexico."

And these Lobos (29-4) are determined to finally produce some March memories for their hoops-crazy state, where fans are getting two teams to cheer for with New Mexico State also in the 64-team field. It's the first time in 11 years both schools have been in, and Gov. Bill Richardson has offered his congratulations and best wishes.

New Mexico is back for the first time since 2005, so none of the current players have been in a game of this importance before.

"I think we've been worried about that all year, and yet they have continued to amaze," Alford said. "We don't have any experience on this team and yet we've had a successful season."

Hobson is a major reason why. The Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, the 6-foot-7 "point-forward" as he refers to himself, is trying to become the first player in school history to lead the team in points, rebounds and assists.

He transferred from College of Eastern Utah and immediately showed he can dominate in every phase of the game.

Hobson is averaging 16.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists.

"He's just a matchup nightmare," Tinkle said.

"That's a player," said Johnson, who like Hobson is a junior college transfer.

Hobson's stock will only go up if he shines in the NCAAs as he hopes. NBA scouts and experts are already watching closely to see how he performs.

"We need to represent well," Hobson said. "This is our first tournament game in a while. It's the first tournament game for everyone at New Mexico."

The program has never won two in a row at the NCAA tournament and is 6-12 in its last 11 appearances. Alford has lost his last three in the NCAA tournament since his Iowa team beat Creighton in the first round of the 2001 tournament.

Not that the Montana guys have been here before either. They were soaking in the scene at HP Pavilion on Wednesday heading into the school's first NCAA game since '06. While Tinkle has urged his players to enjoy the experience, the Griz (22-9) are keeping with their "don't settle" theme.

"Don't settle for just having gotten here," Tinkle said.

Tinkle hopes to still be playing in San Jose even though his freshman daughter, Joslyn, will make her NCAA debut for the Stanford women's team Saturday only 20 minutes up the freeway.

The Lobos will have a load on their hands in Johnson, who went off for 42 points - 34 in the second half - in rallying his team to a 66-65 win over Weber State for the Big Sky Conference tournament crown. Johnson scored the Grizzlies' final 21 points to bring his team back from 22 down, and he is averaging 27.7 over his past three outings.

"That's the best I've played to this point in my college career," Johnson said. "I've had high-scoring games, but nothing of that magnitude or significance. It's kind of indescribable. When you get into a zone like that, everything slows up. You lose sense of time."

Johnson is also drawing attention for his life off the court. His wife, Shaunte Nance-Johnson, is on the women's team and they are the first married couple to be playing sports at the school at the same time.

The Lobos overachieved this season if you ask the prognosticators.

They were picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West, so to some this has been a surprising run to the postseason. But not to the players.

"We felt like we got slapped in the face," guard Phillip McDonald said. "Last year we were picked fifth and this year we were picked fifth, and we just felt like we had a lot to prove to everybody else that we don't deserve to be picked fifth. We had a chip on our shoulder. We're always trying to prove ourselves to everybody that we are a good team. That's what we've been telling people all year."