The Louisville Cardinals made it into the Final Four for the second straight season, but all the attention during and after the game was on Kevin Ware, who suffered a serious injury to his leg live on television that reminded many of the leg crunching hit on Joe Theismann from Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
According to ESPN.com, Ware was making a play to black a shot from Duke when he landed on his leg and it twisted into a very awkward position and forced him to go directly down to the floor. The play was so gruesome that CBS stopped showing replays of it and reports said that Ware's bone was sticking out of his leg. He was taken to the hospital and ESPN reported that he suffered a lower right leg break.
Chane Behanan said he saw the bone sticking out of Ware's leg and many of the Cardinal players as well as coach Rick Pitino broke down when they saw what happened. Theismann later tweeted about the play, writing: "Watching Duke/Louisville my heart goes out to Kevin Ware."
The team rallied behind the injury, taking a 35-32 margin into the locker room at halftime after not scoring for over three minutes after the injury went down. The team shut down the Blue Devils in the second half and hung on for the 85-63 win to head to the Georgia Dome for the Final Four in Atlanta.
The team relied on its core players in Peyton Siva and Russ Smith and was able to win the game for Ware and now will face off against the surprising Wichita State Shockers in the national semifinals. Syracuse and Michigan will battle in the other side of the bracket. The Shockers shocked everyone by getting into the Final Four, coming in as a ninth seed and defeating Ohio State 70-66 on Saturday.
Duke got solid play from their top players as Mason Plumlee scored 17 points and 12 rebounds while Seth Curry dropped 12 points, all in the second half. Russ Smith was dynamic for Louisville, scoring 23 points and winning the top player award for the region.