INDIANAPOLIS — Louisville guard Kevin Ware was up and walking on crutches Monday morning, and coach Rick Pitino said his player’s spirits have been boosted by the outpouring of support from friends and fans.
Ware wasn’t in any pain after a 2-hour surgery Sunday night to repair a horrifying fracture in his right leg. Doctors reset the bone and inserted a rod, and are monitoring him to make sure there’s no infection, Pitino said.
“He’s doing terrific, in great spirits,” Pitino, who visited Ware on Sunday night and again Monday morning, said on a conference call. “He’ll be with us in Atlanta.”
Ware broke his leg in the first half of Sunday’s Midwest Regional final when he landed awkwardly after trying to contest a 3-point shot, breaking his leg in two places. He was taken off the court on a stretcher as his stunned teammates openly wept.
Before he left, Ware urged his teammates to “just win the game,” and all said afterward there was no way they could have let him down. The Cardinals beat Duke 85-63 to reach their second straight Final Four.
“That was the first time he just broke down and cried, when he heard the players talking about him,” Pitino said. “Now he’s in very good spirits and anxious to get out of the hospital and get back with the guys.”
They’re anxious to have him back, too. He has the regional championship trophy, which Pitino brought him Sunday night.
“I said, `All right, just make sure you don’t lose it,”’ Pitino said.
Ware’s girlfriend stayed at the hospital overnight, and Pitino said Ware’s mother arrived Monday morning.
As long as there are no complications, Pitino said Ware should return to Louisville on Tuesday. The Cardinals travel to Atlanta on Wednesday night, and Pitino said they expect to have Ware with them.
“As you know, Kevin is from Atlanta,” Pitino said. “He gets to go home, be with his family and be with us on the bench.”
Ware has played a key role in the Cardinals’ second straight Final Four run, scoring 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting in 25 minutes in the regional semifinal win over Oregon, and on Sunday he was the primary motivator. Before leaving the court, he called his teammates over to prod them to win the game and not worry about him, a message he continued to express at halftime. And he was eager to return to Atlanta, where he played high school basketball.
For television viewers, it was a gruesome sight that prompted many to express their sentiments on social media sites. CBS even stopped showing the replay, which was not seen inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
For Louisville players and coaches, it was far worse. Guard Russ Smith said he didn’t see the play but he heard the bone snap. And forward Chane Behanan, Ware’s closest friend, said the sight was almost unimaginable.
Pitino, one of college basketball’s top winners, thought he had seen just about everything in the sport until Ware’s injury.
“I went over and I was going to help him up and then all of a sudden, I saw what it was and I almost literally threw up,” Pitino said.
Ware’s teammates were overcome with emotion, too.
Luke Hancock patted Ware on the chest after Ware rolled himself to the sideline and right in front of the Louisville bench. Behanan and several other players sat on the floor as Ware was treated and some, including Behanan, cried. Duke guard Tyler Thornton covered his eyes when he realized what had happened, and Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski even told Pitino that he would agree to let the teams warm up again if they wanted.
They didn’t, though Pitino did summon Ware’s teammates so he could speak to them. His message was simple: Win the game.
“I said, `We’re going to dig in. We’re going to play this game to the end. We’re going to play this game to get him back home,”’ Pitino said, explaining his halftime speech. “We’ll get him back home, nurse him to good health and we’re going to get him to Atlanta.”
Louisville trainer Fred Hina told Pitino it was the same injury that derailed the Heisman Trophy hopes of running back Michael Bush, who also played at Louisville. Bush recovered from the injury and has had a productive NFL career with Oakland and Chicago.
As it turned out, he was watching.
“I just cried,” he wrote on Twitter. “I feel so bad. Flashback of myself. Anyone if he needs anything please let me know.”
The reaction was the same everywhere.
Louisville forward Wayne Blackshear fell to the floor, crying, and Behanan looked as if he was going to be sick on the court, kneeling on his hands and feet. Peyton Siva sat a few feet away, a hand covering his mouth.
Someone finally pulled Behanan to his feet, but he doubled over and needed a few seconds to gather himself.
Condolences poured in on social media, too. Former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, who famously sustained a broken leg on Monday Night Football in a game against the New York Giants, tweeted that “Watching Duke/ Louisville my heart goes out to Kevin Ware.” Pitino said Theismann had called Ware to wish him well.
Two doctors speculated Ware might have had stress fractures that predisposed him to such a break.
Dr. Reed Estes, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and team physician for the UAB football team, said basketball players are prone to stress fractures in the tibia, the larger of the two bones in the lower leg, and that can weaken them.
“If these are not detected they can result in a full fracture, particularly if the landing mechanics are just right” after a jump, Estes said. Surgery to stabilize the bones is usually successful, and Ware should be fine to play next season, he said.
Dr. Frederick Azar, head of the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., and a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, said Ware “jumped pretty far horizontally and vertically, and he landed with a twist,” which puts so much torsion and stress on the bones they could have just snapped. He agreed with Estes’ assessment that a stress fracture could have made Ware more prone to such an injury.
Louisville, the top overall seed in the tourney, missed four of its next five shots after the injury but regained its composure to take a 35-32 halftime lead and went on to an 85-63 victory.
“We won this for him,” Pitino said. “We were all choked up with emotion for him. We’ll get him back to normal. We’ve got great doctors, great trainers. We talked about it every timeout, ‘Get Kevin home.’”
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