First things first, that was completely absurd that Trent Johnson was ejected from the game. He's smarter than that to walk halfway onto the court, but that's not something foreign to NCAA Tournament games. I have a hard time believing he told the referee something so egregious it deserved the final technical.

That's an embarrassment to the college basketball officiating trade.

I said this morning that the game would be decided by whether the Cardinal frontcourt outplayed the Golden Eagles backcourt. Based on the efforts put forth, it's hard to accurately determine who played better, but since Brook Lopez banked in the final bucket with 1.3 left, the nod goes to Stanford.

That said, Jerel McNeal played unbelievably, with 30 points and Dominic James added 10 assists. However, the Lopez twins accounted for 48 points and kept the team together after their head coach was tossed with three minutes to go in the first half.

Major credit to Stanford's leaders and assistant coach Doug Oliver who looked beside himself when he realize the burden that had been placed on his shoulders.

Stanford 82, Marquette 81