Good thing I skipped the salad.

See, two years ago this week (what we in the past referred to as “girls state basketball week”) I had lunch at Granite City in Lincoln. Lovely place, great landing spot for us carnivores. But for some reason that day, after somehow steering away from the meatloaf, I ordered a steak salad. Never had one before.

But weirdly enough in the days and weeks prior I remember sorta fantasizing about a steak salad. Sounds exotic, never had one. Well sure enough, there was one on the menu so I ordered up, made sure I could get my hands on some Dorothy Lynch dressing, and went to work.

Pretty sure that’s what set off the COVID pandemic.

I mean, connect the dots. Prior to that day I had never ordered a steak salad - let’s be honest, I hadn’t ordered many salads as a meal, period - and before that there had never been COVID pandemic. Yet back in March of 2020 there was one, just days after that fateful culinary decision by ol’ @HuskerlandBob.

My bad.

Faced with a similar set of circumstances - same week, same place, same menu - on Monday I veered away from the steak salad and went full-on bleu cheeseburger. And see, everything is fine. Except for the snow, which may or may not paralyze state basketball on Thursday, depending on your forecaster.

Kids, there’s a message in there somewhere.

* We will have more of a full state tournament review next week but a couple of quick thoughts from Day 1 and Day 2:

* Seeding is just a number. We had three No. 8 seeds (Fort Calhoun boys, Amherst boys, Hartington Cedar Catholic girls, respectively) upset No. 1s (Wahoo, Freeman, Elmwood-Murdock, respectively). Fort Calhoun, already the darling of the tournament since the program hadn’t qualified since 1923, has a real nice inside-outside thing working with the Schwarz Boys (Carsen, Zane) in the paint, and a wondrous shooting guard in sophomore Grayson Bouwman, and that doesn’t even count the hero of the day - of a lifetime, actually - in junior Austin Welchert, whose late three-pointer put him in the school history book forever.

* 39 is just a number. In the regular season Omaha Westside, certainly a money-line pick to win the Class A boys tournament, had beaten Creighton Prep by 39 points. On Tuesday night the Junior Jays beat Westside by six. Go figure.

Guess that will give my new friend Luke Jungers something to tell them about over there in Luxembourg this summer. (His well-timed feature story was on the website yesterday.)

* 4 is just a number. Unless you’re the Gothenburg girls basketball team and it’s the fourth time you face Broken Bow, losing all three previous games. Wouldn’t be much reason to write about a fourth, but the Swedes upset Bow, 45-43, in Monday’s Class C-1 first round. Stunning loss for the Indians, who were 21-2, but a program-maker for Coach Kassie Schuett’s Swedes.

* Aaron Losing’s not done yet. Crofton’s nine-time head girls basketball coach is enjoying one last victory tour before ending his time with his uber successful program. Tuesday his team won a heart-stopping 41-38 victory over Ponca in a rematch of last year’s Class C-2 state final. Didn’t seem fair those two teams faced each other so early in the tournament.

Crofton scored two late traditional three-point plays, the second one by senior leader Alexis Folkers with four seconds left to seal the deal...those a last-second shot by Ponca was right on line but sailed just over the basket. Heart-stopping, like I said.

So much more but we’ll save it for next week.

* As for today, a quick thought on our Day 3 semifinals:

At Pinnacle Bank Arena

Class C-1 girls

9 a.m. - No. 1 Lincoln Lutheran v. No. 5 Gothenburg. Lincoln Lutheran was fortunate to escape the first round and now faces a team with nothing to lose.

10:45 a.m. - No. 2 North Bend Central v. No. 3 Grand Island Central Catholic. Two-time defending champ NBC faces battle-tested GICC. State final worthy game, right here.

Class B boys

1:30 p.m. - No. 1 Omaha Skutt v. No. 4 Platteview. Skutt is so good but Platteview does have Connor Millikan. Skutt’s size makes the difference but this should be really entertaining.

3:15 p.m. - No. 2 Omaha Roncalli v. No. 6 Beatrice. Defending champion Beatrice ain’t done yet, beating a really good Scottsbluff team in the opening round, but Roncalli advances as long as it, dare I say, takes it one game at a time.

Class A girls

6 p.m. - No. 1 Millard South v. No. 5 Lincoln Southwest. Unbeaten Millard South features all those fun shooters, but so did Omaha Central.

7:45 p.m. - No. 2 Fremont v. No. 3 Lincoln High. Pinnacle will be rocking with Lincoln schools in both Class A semis and, ahem, Lincoln High has handed Fremont one of its two losses. Game of the day? Could well be.

At Devaney Sports Center

Class D-1 boys

9 a.m. - No. 1 North Platte St. Pat’s v. No. 5 Burwell I know I, know, cutting it close (full computer update slowed me down this morning), but the Irish held firm against scary Lourdes in opening round, Burwell did the same, putting aside an EPPJ challenge. Both teams also won their 2021 state tournament opener before losing but this time one of these gets to the finals. I could see a lot of points in this one.

10:45 a.m. - No. 2 Dundy County-Stratton v. No. 3 Loomis. This one could also be a shoot out. Class D teams just haven’t beaten Loomis much this season; Dundy plays for its first-ever state finals appearance.

Class C-2 boys

1:30 p.m. - No. 8 Amherst v. No. 4 Grand Island Central Catholic. Amherst wins its first-round game at Northeast, bringing back memories of that classic victory over Ainsworth in the 2016 state tournament opener. GICC is the defending state champion and will need to play well to make another final.

3:15 p.m. - No. 7 Norfolk Catholic v. No. 3 Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family. Norfolk Catholic is the scariest No. 7 seed in any class this week, completely capable of winning it all. HLHF survived a third meeting with Howells-Dodge to advance, is defending D-1 state champ.

Class D-2 boys

6 p.m. - No. 1 St. Mary’s v. No. 5 Osceola. St. Mary’s seeks first finals appearance since winning it all in 2012 - the only other time the program played in a state final - while Osceola is living the life after winning its first state tournament game since 1986.

7:45 p.m. - No. 2 Falls City Sacred Heart v. No. 6 Parkview Christian. A rematch of last year’s state final. Good enough to be the same game this year.