Once top-seeded Louisville was on the verge of finishing off Duke on Sunday afternoon to clinch its second Final Four bid in the past two seasons, forward Chane Behanan stripped off his own jersey and donned the No. 5 of teammate Kevin Ware. It was a fitting gesture for the player who inspired the Cardinals not to let their championship dreams go to waste on his behalf. As he was lying in front of the Louisville bench in the first half with his right leg broken so badly that the bone was protruding from the skin, Ware called his teammates over and told them not to worry about him and to go win the game. The top-seeded Cardinals did just as he asked, breaking open a three-point game at halftime and pulling away from second-seeded Duke for an 85-63 rout. Ware's injury was on the minds of his teammates throughout their game-changing 24-8 blitz midway through the second half. Since Ware is an Atlanta native and that is the host city for the Final Four, Coach Rick Pitino said Louisville players and coaches reminded one-another during every timeout that the goal was to bring Ware home. "We won this for him," Pitino told CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson. "We're all choked up with emotion for him. We wanted to get back to Atlanta." It was two of Louisville's other guards who were most responsible for the Cardinals turning a 35-32 halftime lead into a rout. Seniors Russ Smith and Peyton Siva torched Duke off the dribble via the pick and roll the entire game, beating their defenders easily and then drawing fouls on late-arriving Duke big men around the rim.
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