The image of Louisville’s Kevin Ware lying on the court near the Cardinal bench in Indianapolis is not one I care to remember. I saw the replay once and that was enough for me.

It was easily one of the worst injuries I have ever seen in sports. Others like Marcus Lattimore, Napoleon Kaufman, Stephen Drew and Joe Theismann come to mind. But this one was different — not because of the severity of the injury, but because of the reaction. On such a big stage with all those camera angles and in high definition, we got to see up close how that injury affected so many people. I did watch the play back several times on Sunday but not to watch the actual injury, but to watch the reaction. Teammates on the court, on the bench, Duke players, both coaches and the fans all had visible reactions to the injury.

It was that reaction that made this a little different because in all the other injuries that I can recall seeing, I have never seen coaches crying, players on the verge of fainting and vomiting. I wonder — if the injury had happened in the second half and Coach Pitino didn’t have a halftime to rally the troops and give his “Win One for the Gipper” speech — could Louisville still have won?

Those players were distraught and I believe needed that halftime to regroup. And regroup they did.

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