The phenomenon of Louisville guard Kevin Ware continues to ripple. Ware, the Rockdale County High grad whose gruesome leg injury suffered Sunday has attracted national attention, was to deliver the “Top Ten” list on “Late Show with David Letterman” on Thursday night.
He has received well wishes from First Lady Michelle Obama and basketball superstars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.
“I’m a quiet guy, so a lot of this is really new to me,” Ware said Wednesday at a news conference at Louisville.
Ware made the trip with the Cardinals to Atlanta, where his hopes and spirits are high.
“I’ll recover and I’ll be fine, but we’ve still got to win this championship,” said Ware, who said he was told that his fractured tibia will take between eight and 12 weeks to heal.
Ware has won admirers near and far for the way that he handled the injury and the overwhelming response since then.
“When that happened, we all witnessed a different side of Kevin, something we haven’t seen,” coach Rick Pitino said. “It’s just incredible how adversity brings out the best in people. It certainly brought out the best in Kevin, as well as his teammates.
On the court: Ware's absence has considerable meaning for Louisville from a strategic standpoint. The Cardinals have used a three-guard rotation of starters Peyton Siva and Russ Smith and Ware off the bench. Ware has averaged 16.6 minutes this season, while Siva and Smith have averaged 31.0 and 30.1 and minutes, respectively.
Pitino may turn to walk-on Tim Henderson, who has played in 25 of Louisville’s 38 games and has averaged 3.5 minutes.
“Obviously, when you press and run as much as we do, it becomes a great concern when you don’t have a substitute,” Pitino said. “He’s got to do the best job he can do.”
Big week: Pitino is having a bit of a week. On Wednesday, his son, Richard, was hired as coach at Minnesota after one year at Florida International, replacing the fired Tubby Smith. (Coincidentally, Smith replaced Pitino at Kentucky in 1997.) On Monday, when the Cardinals could play for the national championship, Pitino will learn if he has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He is a finalist for the 2013 class along with, among others, Tim Hardaway, the five-time All-NBA guard and father of Tim Hardaway Jr., who plays for Michigan.
On top of that, a racehorse that Pitino co-owns, Goldencents, is running Saturday in the Santa Anita Derby in hopes of qualifying for the Kentucky Derby.
Said Pitino, “I just would love to see the national championship (scenario) happen.”
Cash Cardinals: Louisville has won one title, that of highest-valued college basketball team. Forbes magazine valued the team at $38.5 million, ahead of Kansas ($32.9 million), North Carolina ($32.8 million) and Kentucky ($32.1 million). Much of the team's worth is because of the new KFC Yum! Center, which helped bring in $20.4 million in contributions last year.
The Cardinals program netted a $24.6 million profit last year. Syracuse, the only other Final Four team in the top 20, ranked ninth (valued at $19.2 million, $11.7 million in profit).
About the Author
