Shaken Louisville pulls together for Kevin Ware
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
Link: Photo gallery, Louisville vs. Duke
INDIANAPOLIS – He had to start at the beginning. Pausing, for a heavy moment, to gather whatever description he could find for a moment this ugly before answering the question.
That’s what happens when you heard a teammate’s leg snap.
That’s what happens when you turned to see a piece of bone protruding from the skin of another man’s shin.
That’s what happens when a 21-year-old fell to the floor in despair for a friend as an entire arena went from ear-splitting loud to pin-drop quiet in about three seconds.
Russ Smith was one of the first people to see little brother Kevin Ware’s gruesome injury, and he struggled to articulate his emotions in front of reporters after emerging from the Louisville Cardinals’ victorious locker room Sunday night.
Well, we’re playing on the stage, Smith said softly. I was really into the game. I was just looking close. (Duke guard Tyler) Thornton might have been open. I saw Kevin go out there and challenge (Thornton’s shot). When (Ware) landed, I heard it. Then I saw what happened. I immediately just fell. And I almost didn’t feel anything. It was really hard for me to pull myself together because I didn’t ever think in a million years I would see something like that. Especially for a guy like Kevin Ware, I was completely devastated.
Ware, a reserve guard, left on a stretcher with about six minutes remaining in the first half after breaking his right leg and was at Methodist Hospital when his teammates chanted his name and held up his jersey during a bittersweet celebration of the Cardinals’ second consecutive Final Four appearance. The injury occurred during a routine defensive motion that Ware perhaps will not repeat for 12 months, and that resulted in an awkward landing which his tibia could not complete unscathed.
Up until then, it was as intense as an Elite Eight game should be. Louisville led Duke 21-20. The building was packed with Cardinals fans in support of their team, a great sign for a passionate group of defensive maestros looking for that one edge to carry them to Atlanta, where Ware completed high school.
Louisville went on to hand the Blue Devils their third-worst loss in the school’s illustrious NCAA tournament history, but the storyline was the Cardinals’ performance in the face of enormous grief.
There was every reason to believe their competitive focus was irrevocably disintegrated; players like Smith were in tears; in a span of just 10 minutes they had to recognize the damage, speak with Ware, process the tragedy and return to the floor to face one of the country’s best teams.
Before Ware leaped skyward and came down in a heap, Lucas Oil Stadium was an excited, buzzing place.
Afterward, not even the Cardinals’ win could remove the sad pall over a sporting event that became laced with agony for a college sophomore who eyed his own leg – destroyed – and screamed.
I don’t think any of us, with what we had to witness, could have overcome it, if it wasn’t for Kevin Ware saying 12 times, ˜I’ll be fine, win the game,’ said Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who nearly threw up at the scene of Ware’s injury.
The sight of Ware lying on the court was indeed horrifying, a reminder of our frail humanity, a message that we are all brittle in this life. On another level, it brought the realization that Ware was suddenly removed from his team as it pursues a national championship, never to set foot on a basketball court for a long, long time.
Put aside that Ware had been making a tremendous contribution off the Cardinals’ bench, a factor at both guard spots who could spell Smith and Peyton Siva with energy, enthusiasm and effectiveness.
As expected, Pitino was not concerned with the impact of this adversity on Louisville’s tournament run, only on Ware himself.
He’s a brave young man, Pitino said. I told him, ˜You’re going to be fine.’ This is a close, close team.
Smith, who scored a game-high 23 points in the Cardinals’ 85-63 victory, said the team re-channeled its emotions at halftime.
Let’s not lose, he said. Don’t lose this game for Kevin Ware. That’s it, really.
Siva thought of Ware in a hospital bed, watching the game on a wall-mounted television.
If we would have gone back out there and lost, Siva said, I think that would have hurt him more than the actual injury.
Link to Cliff Brunt’s Sports XChange national game story: Louisville 85, Duke 63.
Follow Chris Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chrisgoff_ISL.
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