In an elite eight weekend filled with emotion, a mid-major joined three power programs in punching their tickets to Atlanta. This week’s Sports Illustrated takes you inside the inspiring runs to the Final Four and features Louisville and Wichita State on regional covers.
Louisville’s convincing win over Duke was overshadowed by the gruesome injury suffered by reserve guard Kevin Ware, who broke his right tibia as he tried to close out on a three point attempt by Duke’s Tyler Thornton with six and a half minutes remaining in the first half. Ware stared in shock at the lower half of his right leg, which was split apart at an impossible angle. Senior writer Luke Winn writes: “The scene inspired visceral feelings of horror and panic and nausea.” (PAGE 36)
Cardinals forward Change Behanan collapsed on the floor, while Louisville guard Russ Smith immediately started crying. Cardinals guard Luke Hancock told Winn: “the whole crowd turned white.” However, a plea from the horrifically stricken Ware inspired his team to focus on winning the game. Before leaving for the hospital, Ware called his teammates over and said: “Just go win this game for me. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Just go win this game.” (PAGE 38)
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino says: “I don’t think we could have gathered ourselves—I know I couldn’t have—if Kevin didn’t [do that].” (PAGE 38)
The horror felt by fans, players and coaches was nothing compared with what Ware’s mother Lisa Junior felt when she saw a replay of the injury on TV from a friend’s house in Conyers, GA., a town 25 miles outside of Atlanta. Winn spoke to Junior on Sunday night and she told him: “When I saw the replay, I lost it.” She felt helpless until her son’s words on the phone from the hospital calmed her down, just as he did for his teammates before he left the court. Ware said, “Calm down, Mom. I’m O.K.” (PAGE 38)
While the Cardinals did not gather themselves right away, Winn writes that Pitino regrouped his team at halftime and told them “If we don’t get him (Ware) home to Atlanta [near where he attended high school, and the site of the Final Four], it wasn’t worth playing this season (PAGE 36).” The Cardinals outscored Duke 50-31 in the final 20 minutes en route to an 85-63 win and will face heavy underdog Wichita State in Atlanta this Saturday.
Also in this week’s SI, senior writer Kelli Anderson writes that the unheralded Wichita State Shockers have thrived in the face of national indifference. After being picked to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference and sweating out selection Sunday due to a poor late season stretch and rash of injuries, the No. 9 seeded Shockers defeated Ohio State 70-66 and won the upset-ravaged West bracket by following Head Coach Gregg Marshall’s directive to “play angry.”
Anderson says that Marshall, who has never coached at a BCS school, is an underdog at heart, and “those are the guys he coaches: late bloomers, walk-ons, overlooked prospects and well-traveled transfers—guys with something to prove.” (PAGE 42)
Junior forward Cleanthony Early transferred from a junior college, Carl Hall, a 6’8” senior forward is playing for his third school in six years and the Shockers lost three players to injury after starting the season at 19-2.
Despite faltering a bit down the stretch, the Shockers got into the tournament and won four games, including upsets over No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Ohio State. Anderson finds that they have no interest in settling for a good Cinderella label. Early says: “We’re not celebrating the way anybody wants us to celebrate because we understand that we got two more games left to the real thing.” (PAGE 42)
Marshall says: “I don’t think we’re Cinderella at all. If you get to this point, you can win the whole thing. I think Cinderella just found one glass slipper. I don’t think she found four.” (PAGE 42)
