The scene after Louisville's Kevin Ware sustained an open fracture of his right leg late in the first half was surreal. Four Cardinals woozily held each other up at center court, several appearing on the brink of fainting, others crying and shaking. Coach Rick Pitino dabbed away tears.
But as he was treated on the floor, before a cart carried him off to a hospital, Ware called his teammates over, but they could not hear him. Pitino had to yell to get their attention.
"Guys!" Pitino cried. "He wants to say something."
Russ Smith, Peyton Siva, Chane Behanan, Wayne Blackshear and Gorgui Dieng gathered around Ware. In that huddle, Ware told them, "Just win it for me, y'all." Louisville, the region's No. 1 seed, responded by dismantling the second-seeded Blue Devils, 85-63, with a dominating second-half performance at Lucas Oil Stadium to earn a second consecutive trip to the Final Four.
At halftime, Pitino repeated the plea for a victory made by Ware, who grew up in Atlanta, where the Final Four will be held.
"Coach said we need to get him back home," Siva said. "If we lost, that would've hurt him more than the actual injury."
When Ware crumbled to the court, the Cardinals led, 21-20, but it was going to take a monumental resurgence of character to not let the scene they had witnessed derail their play.
"I heard it," Smith said. "It was really hard just to put myself together. I never thought in a million years I'd see something like that."
Pitino said: "It was terrible to watch. I felt awful for the players, felt awful for the fans. But we had to gather ourselves. We couldn't lose this game for him. We just couldn't."
The Cardinals emerged from the locker room eight minutes before the second half, unusually early. They were ready to run, run, run again.
They unleashed their fury in a torrent of layups and steals, blocks and dunks, a basketball bludgeoning. The Cardinals (33-5) shot 59.2 percent in the second half to hand Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski his second loss in 13 appearances in the Round of 8.
Ware's injury dimmed a celebrated showdown between Pitino and Krzyzewski, two coaches linked by one of the most famous plays in college basketball history: the buzzer-beating shot by Duke's Christian Laettner to beat Pitino's Kentucky team in the East Region final in 1992.
The coaches remain close friends. Pitino called Krzyzewski a "modern-day John Wooden"; Krzyzewski praised Pitino for his confidence and grace.
At 4:48 p.m. Eastern, the coaches shook hands and then turned back toward their respective benches.
In this N.C.A.A. tournament of remarkable upheaval, it seemed fitting that two of the game's titans would withstand all the turmoil and wind up meeting in such a clash. What is perhaps more surprising is that Pitino and Krzyzewski had faced each other only once since 1992, in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, on Nov. 24.
Duke (30-6) won that game, 76-71, handing Louisville its first loss, but the Cardinals were without their center, Dieng, who had a broken left wrist and whose absence left the team without an integral defensive presence inside.
The Blue Devils withstood their own missing mainstay, Ryan Kelly, who sat out 13 games with a right foot injury late in the season, returning March 2. Kelly had been struggling — he had missed 14 consecutive 3-point attempts before making one early Sunday, and he scored 7 of Duke's first 9 points.
But Kelly picked up his second foul with 12 minutes left in the first half, and then a third four minutes later, sending him to the bench. Without him, Duke went with the less-experienced Josh Hairston, far less of an offensive threat.
Louisville seized on this, doubling Duke center Mason Plumlee each time he touched the ball. Plumlee seemed rattled. The Cardinals' relentless pressure forced 10 turnovers, with eight steals and five blocks in the first half. Still, the lead changed hands 10 times, and neither team led by more than 4.
Problematic for Duke early on was Seth Curry's struggle to find open shots, after his 29-point outing had carried the Blue Devils over Michigan State in the Round of 16. Curry did not make his first shot until early in the second half, and when he did, he suddenly seemed to awaken.
Curry scored Duke's first 8 points after halftime, but Louisville began to pull away, led by Siva and Dieng. The Cardinals went on a 17-2 run to take a 59-44 lead with 9 minutes 38 seconds remaining.
The Blue Devils went 3 of 16 from the field to begin the second half, struggling against Louisville's defensive pressure, which kept crashing in like waves. Siva and Smith penetrated to the basket at will, combining for 39 points and 13-of-24 shooting in the game.
With about a minute left, Behanan left the bench briefly and returned wearing Ware's No. 5 jersey. The Cardinals will pack it for their next trip, to Atlanta, his hometown.
