Stanford players don't expect coach to change after second-round ejection

3/24/2008 5:55 PM

By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -Trent Johnson would prefer to forget those two technicals that earned the Stanford coach a first-half ejection in the Cardinal's second-round NCAA victory over Marquette.

He has moved on to bigger matters: preparing his team for a tough matchup with Texas Friday in the South Regional semifinals at Houston. Stanford's players expect their coach to keep being his emotional self on the sideline, too.

``Why should my approach change? What happened?'' Johnson said Monday before hitting the Maples Pavilion practice floor back home on The Farm. ``My approach is not going to change. I'm going to conduct myself in a very professional, very competitive demeanor and go from there. Everybody saw the game. The interesting thing is everybody wants that to be a story. That's not a story. The story was there was a group of kids who played extremely hard, were very competitive and kept their poise.''

With assistant Doug Oliver leading the way in place of Johnson - the Pac-10 Coach of the Year - third-seeded Stanford (28-7) held on to beat Marquette 82-81 in overtime on Brook Lopez's winning shot with 1.3 seconds left Saturday. The Cardinal are on to the regional semifinals for the first time since reaching the West Regional final in 2001.

``He might be more conscious of reaching that limit with the refs but I don't think he'll be any different in his approach,'' said point guard Mitch Johnson, who had 16 assists Saturday. ``Obviously he knows people are watching him and the past stays with you.''

Texas (30-6), seeded second and the runner-up in the Big 12 Conference tournament, and star D.J. Augustin survived to beat Miami 75-72 on Sunday.

Having played in the talented and diverse Pac-10 this season, Trent Johnson knows his team will be ready for whatever style the Cardinal face during this March run. And he plans to witness all 40 minutes of the action Friday, when the Cardinal certainly will face a largely pro-Longhorns crowd considering Texas is playing in its home state.

Johnson was thrown out late in the first half after coming onto the court to argue a foul called on Lawrence Hill, but the officials said a timeout had not begun and called two quick technicals.

Coupled with Candice Wiggins' first collegiate 'T' in the Cardinal women's win over Cleveland State on Saturday at Maples Pavilion and Robin Lopez's T later after Johnson was tossed, Stanford finished with a rare four technicals Saturday.

``This is a whole other game, a whole other city and a whole other state,'' guard Anthony Goods said when asked whether the officials will be closely watching the Cardinal.

Stanford is 4-1 on neutral courts this season and played UCLA tough twice in Los Angeles, so the players are used to hostile environments.

The Cardinal aren't about to tell their coach he needs to watch his mouth in their next game. They will have plenty to worry about on the court, anyway.

``He got T'd up pretty quickly. I don't even know exactly what he said,'' senior forward Taj Finger said. ``I think everyone was surprised to see him get tossed that quick. I doubt that will happen again. He's been the same for four years. He's gotten technicals before and the next game he's come out and been the same.''