INDIANAPOLIS — As the final seconds played out because the rules must be followed, sophomore Chane Behanan stood up in front of his team's bench and slapped the “Louisville” across his jersey. Only it was not his jersey. It was the No. 5 assigned to classmate Kevin Ware, which fit tightly over his barrel chest.

Ware had been gone from the court for 26 minutes of basketball time, having broken his leg in so gruesome a fashion the television network handling the broadcast declines to repeat the ugliest footage.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino tells Kevin Ware to stay on the floor as medical staff attend to Ware's broken leg. (AP Photo)

The delay after his injury lasted eight minutes, though it seemed like an hour. How does anyone return to basketball after such a thing, after seeing a teammate, a friend, afflicted in this manner? There was no choice, though. This is athletics. Competitors are injured, the game continues. So as sophomore guard Kevin Ware left for the hospital with a fractured right leg, the other Louisville Cardinals gathered on the basketball court, literally wiped the tears from their eyes with the necks of their jerseys, and continued.

And when they’d managed at least that, they shone.

Louisville’s second-half rampage reflected a team playing with passion, confidence and aggression. This is nothing new for the Cardinals. It is why they were here at Lucas Oil Stadium playing No. 2 seed Duke in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Region final. That they could recover all their best competitive qualities from the trauma of the Ware injury and storm to a 85-63 victory over the Blue Devils and claim their second consecutive Final Four berth was the memory Cardinals fans might prefer to linger from Sunday evening.

"Me and Kevin are like peanut butter-n-jelly," Behanan said. "I never cried for anybody like that. Kevin is like a brother to me.

"I dropped a tear for him, continued to play."

Behanan told reporters on the court after the game that Ware had told his teammates before being stretchered off, "Don't worry about me. I'm good. Play. Win it for me."

There were uncharacteristic moments after play resumed for a few of the Louisville players, most notably when center Gorgui Dieng blew through a stationary Seth Curry on the perimeter and needlessly picked up his third personal foul. But mostly they looked like the Cardinals, with guard Russ Smith scoring 23 points to lead the team, as he usually does, guard Peyton Siva contributing 16 and Dieng 14.

After the teams played the six remaining minutes of the first half after Ware’s injury in a bit of a daze, the Cardinals' locker room was relatively "silent," Behanan said. Coach Rick Pitino gave the players some instructions, such as to work at running forward Ryan Kelly off the 3-point line, then sent them back to the court for warm-ups earlier than normal. Assistant coach Kevin Keatts told Sporting News the idea was to get them out of the locker room, where they wondered and worried, and instead thinking about the Elite Eight game they were playing against the Blue Devils.

Pitino does not miss much, one reason he is returning to the Final Four a seventh time, the third with Louisville.

Duke seemed to have a foothold in the game when Curry—an All-American who’d been held scoreless in the first half through a stirring defensive effort led by sophomore Wayne Blackshear—hit a couple of right-corner 3-pointers and two free throws that left the Devils trailing only 42-40. (However, Curry missed two throws that would have had the game tied there).

That was the last Duke saw of the game, really. Louisville’s relentless defense and furious attacks on the basketball when it was carried into traffic led to the Devils scoring only four points in the next 7:28. The Cardinals were busy burying them as that drought built, with Smith scoring on a 3-point play, Siva nailing a jumper and then attacking the foul-addled Duke frontcourt for a couple of easy layups and Devils center Mason Plumlee inexplicably daring his counterpart, Dieng, to shoot a couple of foul-line jumpers. Dieng obliged, and made them both.

When that particular episode ended, Louisville held a 59-44 lead. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who lost only his second regional final in 13 tries, mostly was sitting on his stool by then.

Although Dieng’s play in this tournament keeps suggesting otherwise, Louisville’s team is not projected to produce any NBA lottery picks. But the Cardinals have played through March like the nation’s best college team, and watching them treat Duke’s esteemed, talented team as brusquely as they had Colorado State and Oregon confirmed their entry into next weekend’s extravaganza at the Georgia Dome as the clear championship favorite.

Louisville has not won an NCAA title since 1986, when freshman star Pervis Ellison led the Cards over Duke in the championship game.