Geoff JohnsonWichita State is without a doubt the Cinderella story of the 2013 March Madness, but people this time will be against them, despite nothing personal. After Kevin Ware’s injury, Louisville became America’s team and they will try to get to the championship game this Saturday at 6:09 PM ET.
Louisville is the only number one team remaining and should be the one people root against, but after Ware brutal injury in the elite eight, the situation and the empathy have changed.
“I don’t think we could have gathered ourselves — I know I couldn’t have — if Kevin didn’t say over and over again, ‘Just go win the game,” coach Rick Pitino said. “I don’t think we could have gone in the locker room with a loss after seeing that. We had to gather ourselves. We couldn’t lose this game for him. We just couldn’t.”
“Basically, the bone popped out of the skin. It broke in two spots,” Pitino said. “Remember the bone is six inches out of his leg, and all he’s yelling is ‘Win the game, win the game.’ I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Wichita State has a lot to prove; you don’t get to this point in the tournament just to see the other team get to the finals.
“It’s crazy. I still can’t believe we’re here,” Cleanthony Early said. “You try to expect it, but you expect a lot of things that don’t happen. This really happened.”
This will be the first meeting between these two programs; Louisville is a 9.5 favorite in the NCAA basketball odds.
