Montana hosts Anthony Johnson Tribute Game on Saturday

MONTANA VS. SOUTH DAKOTA
ANTHONY JOHNSON TRIBUTE GAME
Big Sky-Summit Challenge
Saturday, Jan. 6 / 7:00 p.m. / Tickets / Watch / Live Stats

Say the name Anthony Johnson around any Montana basketball fan, and you will likely see a smile spread across their face. The memories will flood back of one of the most talented scorers that a historic program has ever seen.

They will likely have a story of where they were on a specific day in March of 2010. They have had conversations around dinner tables about the improbability of what Johnson did in Ogden to lead Montana to the NCAA Tournament. The moment so big, you don't need an explainer to know exactly which one we're referring to here.

The performance will live on as legend. But Johnson was so much more than just a 42-point game. He was a son, a husband, a father. And he was taken from us far too soon.

Montana will celebrate his life on Saturday with the Anthony Johnson game. Shaunte Nance-Johnson and the couple's children will be in attendance.

Johnson arrived at Montana in 2009 as a junior after transferring from Yakima Valley CC. He was the East Region MVP there after averaging nearly 25 points per game. Head coach Wayne Tinkle, entering his third season at Montana, needed a high-impact newcomer and looked to Johnson to be that.

"He was an incredible kid. High character, our kind of guy," Tinkle said. "We had made a mistake on a couple of kids that never put on a uniform and had our only losing season before we brought Anthony. We just kind of said we can't roll the dice on any guys that are borderline academically from qualifying. My assistants did a great job of identifying him."

An added bonus for the University as a whole was that Johnson's wife Shaunte also played basketball at a high level. The couple both agreed to put on the Montana uniforms in 2008.

"I believe he was going to go D2, and we went and took a look and fell in love with him and with Shaunte," Tinkle said. "They were a beautiful couple and we thought it would be a great story to bring them to Montana and we were confident that they were going to help springboard us.

He came off the bench to start his Grizzly career as part of a highly talented team, but scored double figures in just his second game and quickly made his way into the starting lineup. He had multiple 20-point games down the stretch as Montana made a push toward a Big Sky regular season title.

It wouldn't happen for the team that year, but Johnson would earn the Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year award after averaging 17.6 points per game on better than 50 percent shooting. Johnson was the team MVP that season and finished second in the Big Sky Player of the Year voting, earning a First Team All-Big Sky spot.

He returned as a senior and upped his production. He averaged over 19 points per game on impressive shooting splits, making 44.6 percent from three while also leading Montana with 95 assists. His Montana team finished 19-9 overall and 10-6 in Big Sky play.

They went to the tournament in Ogden, and it's there that Johnson went from Griz great to Montana legend. Johnson scored 22 and 19 in the quarters and semis to lead Montana to the title game against the host Weber State Wildcats and the Big Sky MVP Damian Lillard.

Once there, the top-ranked Wildcats seemed to be too much for Montana. They stifled them on the offensive end, not allowing Montana to reach 10 points in the game until there were only six minutes to play in the half. Lillard and company scored at will on the other end, and Weber State entered halftime ahead 40-20.

Tinkle said that as they walked to the locker room, he talked with his assistants about how to approach the team. One suggested to "light them up" with his speech. Another said they needed to just be matter of fact. Tinkled took it all in, and decided he had the message that he needed.

The Griz had been in a similar position in the regular season at the Dee Events Center, trailing 33-23 after a cold offensive half. They came back in the second half of that game and at one point led by eight points. He told the team to do the math. If an 18-point turnaround was possible then, how hard could 20 be?

Tinkle sent his team back onto the floor and waited until the final moments to go join them. When he left the locker room, Johnson was on his way back with a message for his head coach.

"'Coach, you're going to see a new man this half,' Tinkle remembers Johnson saying. "I told him we need to see about 13 new men. He went on to just put on that display."

The display started quickly, as he cut through a pair of defenders and pulled up just inside the paint for a floater to score Montana's first points of the half. He would go on to score in every way possible in the half, knocking down threes and cutting to the lane, stripping Wildcats ballhandlers in the back court and using behind -the-back dribbles to create space.

At a certain point, it became less about how to get Johnson the ball and more about how they could stay out of his way.

"He made some great individual plays but what was really neat was he got on such a roll that we had to make sure the other four guys on the court knew what they were doing to stay out of his way," Tinkle said. "His execution in some of our sets on calls during action or out of timeouts were just perfection."

Johnson would score the final 21 Grizzly points to lead them to a Big Sky title and an NCAA Tournament appearance. He ended the night with 42 points, a Montana school record, a Big Sky Tournament record, and a Dee Events Center record.

"What a heroic championship performance. It's an existing record, and he was our leading scorer two years in a row but he had never had a game quite like that," Tinkle said. "To have that kind of a performance in a championship game is the stuff made of legends."

Johnson will be remembered for the game, but also for so much more than basketball. Anthony and his wife, former Lady Griz basketball player Shaunte Nance-Johnson, shared the dream of all of their children having the opportunity to become Grizzlies, including their middle son, Apollo-Kahn, a brilliant autistic six-year-old.

In support of this dream, the Johnsons have been champions of UM's Autism inclusion and programming led by Associate Clinical Professor Jennifer Schoffer Closson. Your gift makes summer and other specialized programming accessible to more Montanans on the Autism spectrum. Give now.

They are continuing the work that the couple did when they were exemplary students just over a decade ago.

"Anthony was a beam of light in our community," Tinkle said. "He quickly made great friends with people on campus and in the community, and did a lot. They volunteered a lot as a couple and were real ambassadors of the university and our programs."

Head coach Travis DeCuire was heartbroken when he heard the news. DeCuire has made an attempt to connect with Montana history and honor the legends of the university, including hosting the Basketball Travelers Mike Montgomery Classic earlier this season.

"First, it's a big loss to his family, one, and the Missoula community," DeCuire said. "Basketball, academics, and anyone else that AJ touched in his time as a Griz. I think that it's important that you acknowledge people that have had an impact on the lives of others in their time with us."

DeCuire and this year's Montana team are honoring Johnson with the game on Saturday, and also with a jersey patch that they have worn all season long with the initials AJ over the number 23.

"For me, the best way to honor AJ is a patch that creates a conversation throughout the season. I wasn't fortunate enough to meet (Johnson) but I know a lot of people that spent time with him and had positive things to say," DeCuire said. "This game is an opportunity for the community to put their arms around the Johnson family."
A detailed photo of the Montana Grizzlies basketball jersey during a game between the Montana Grizzlies and the North Dakota State Bison at Dahlberg Arena on November 16, 2023 in Missoula, Montana

A detailed photo of the Montana Grizzlies basketball jersey during a game between the Montana Grizzlies and the North Dakota State Bison at Dahlberg Arena on November 16, 2023 in Missoula, Montana

University of Montana Athletics

Montana hosts Anthony Johnson Tribute Game on Saturday

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