ATLANTA — It was early in the second half when Kevin Ware jumped from his courtside seat on to the elevated court at the Georgia Dome — without the use of his crutches.
“Why are you up here,” Louisville trainer Fred Hina shouted furiously at Ware, who suffered a gruesome leg injury in the Midwest Region final against Duke before undergoing surgery earlier this week.
“I’m fine,” Ware said before rushing to join his teammates in the huddle.
Ware wasn’t happy with the defense the Cardinals were playing in the national semifinals, when they got down by as many as 12 points to Wichita State before rallying for a 72-68 victory that propelled them into Monday’s national championship game.
“I was mad the entire game,” Ware said later, sitting on a chair in the Louisville locker room surrounded by reporters.
“I felt like they weren’t getting after it defensively and that’s what got us to this point. I even got on the court and was telling them, ‘This is what’s going to make us win the game, defense.”
Said Louisville guard Peyton Siva: “I thought he was about to sub in for me, I’m so used to it. He caught me off guard.
“Just showed a lot of heart that he really came out there. He just wanted to tell us that we needed to pick it up.
“He’s part of this team. We know how much it would mean for him to be out there.”
On a night when Siva and Gorgui Dieng were struggling, Louisville rallied behind a combined 51 points from Russ Smith, Luke Hancock and Chane Behanan. Hancock became the first bench player to score 20 points in a national semifinal since 1975
Walk-on Tim Henderson even added six points, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to aid Louisville’s second-half comeback.
“The players said they weren’t surprised about him making those back-to-back threes,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “They’re being very kind. I was shocked.”
“Tim is a great player, honestly,” Ware said of Henderson, who didn’t even play last year when Louisville made the Final Four. “We go at it against Russ and Peyton all day in practice, so I really wasn’t surprised, honestly.”
Once again Ware played a critical role despite his injury.
He had helped will Louisville to the win over Duke despite his gruesome injury by telling his teammates to “Just win the game.”
Now with his teammates wearing warmups that read, “Ri5e to the occasion’ with his number on the back; fans holding up signs of support and wearing shirts that read, “All in for # 5,” here was Ware hopping up on the court and preaching defense as upstart Wichita State pushed the No. 1 overall seed to the brink.
“Honestly, when they went up 14, I was actually like, ‘This is getting out of hand and we gotta pick it up,'” Ware said, referring to a bulge that maxed at 12 points. “And we kind of turned it around.”
Ware said he couldn’t pinpoint the moment Louisville turned it around, although Hancock’s 3-pointer and driving layup to make it 67-62 with 1:40 left would be a good guess.
“It was either win or go home at this point,” Ware said.
When Hancock stepped to the foul line in the final seconds with Louisville up 70-68, Ware said he was praying for his teammate to make them.
When Ware suffered his injury, it was Hancock who ran toward him to support him.
Hancock made 1-of-2 for a 71-68 lead.
“We’d love for him to be out there. He’s out there in spirit,” Hancock said of Ware. “It means a lot. Kevin’s my guy.”
After the game, Ware heard a voice he recognized coming from behind him. It was his father, Kevin Ware Sr., whom he said he hadn’t seen in a year or two.
“I turned around and I asked the cop, could he please just let my dad in and that’s all that was,” he said.
“It was everything, honestly,” Ware added. “I haven’t seen my dad in a really long time, so him missing his flight earlier and him still trying to fight to get here as quick as he could, that meant everything to me.”
Kevin Sr. lives in The Bronx, where Kevin lived until seventh grade and played AAU ball with Team Next out of New York. When his parents separated, he moved to Georgia and ran with the Atlanta Celtics.
“He was just telling me he was proud of me and all this is crazy, but at the same time we go through things in life that God just wants us to go through so it is what it is,” Ware said.
Still, Ware wants his team to win more game to honor him and them on Monday night. And he knows what the key will be.
“It would be the greatest feeling in a long time,” Ware said. “These guys are playing their best basketball right now, but without defense we honestly won’t be cutting down those nets Monday.”
And if Ware has to jump up on the elevated court — broken leg and all — he won’t hesitate.
Photo: Rachel Bachman
