Cardinal keep cool, prevent coach from feeling heat

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Trent Johnson may have taught the Stanford basketball team plenty of valuable lessons over the last few years, but they taught him one Saturday evening: how to keep your poise under pressure.

And with that, Trent Johnson is on his way to the locker room. (AP)

With Johnson watching from the locker room after being ejected in the first half, Brook Lopez calmly received the ball in the post, spun to his left and -- with the Cardinal's season hanging in the balance -- rolled in a lunging hook shot with 1.3 seconds left in overtime to lift Stanford to an 81-80 victory over Marquette in the second round of the South Region.

When Marquette's long pass was knocked away, the Cardinal poured onto the court, the school's tree mascot began shaking its leaves and the band struck up its anthem All Right Now.

That the Cardinal is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001 is due in large part to Lopez, who scored 30 points and was a force; his twin brother Robin, who had 18 points, nine rebounds, three blocks, sank the back end of two free throws with 8.8 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime; and point guard Mitch Johnson, who had 16 assists, one turnover, sank all three 3-pointers he attempted.

It also lifted a huge burden from their coach.

Asked if it would have been his fault if the Cardinal had lost, Trent Johnson didn't hesitate.

"No question," he said. "No question."

Trent Johnson's ejection was the subtext for a riveting game that was a classic contrast in styles -- the towering Cardinal led by the 7-foot twins, and scrappy, quick Marquette which got a sensational 30-point, eight-rebound effort from guard Jerel McNeil, whose only shortcoming was a 3-pointer he missed at the end of regulation that would have won it.

Both teams seemed to be measuring each other when Stanford's Lawrence Hill was called for a foul by referee David Hall near the Stanford bench.

Johnson, who waved dismissively at Hall a few minutes earlier when he stopped the game to issue a warning to Stanford's bench, followed Hall to the scorer's table, hands on his hips. He hardly looked animated, and barely uttered more than a sentence when Hall signaled a technical foul.

As Hall retreated toward the top of the key in front of the Stanford bench, during what became a TV timeout with the stoppage in play, Johnson walked out toward the officials, and about 10 feet onto the court began to talk to Hall, who had his back to him. He'd better gotten in a few words when Curtis Shaw whistled him for a second technical foul and ejected him.

As he did, assistant coach Doug Oliver, buried his head in his hands.

"When I saw the hand go up to leave, I was a bit shocked and caught off guard," said Oliver, a former head coach at Idaho State and Boise State who took over for Johnson. "I watched Trent a little bit and I actually started to work into the moment of head coach again. I've done this before, so it was like having to take a deep breath, think back and get the attention of the players."