Kevin Ware back in NCAA tournament 2 years after gruesome injury

Two years after suffering one of the most gruesome injuries in the history of the event, Kevin Ware is back in the NCAA tournament.

As a freshman at Louisville on March 31, 2013, Ware famously broke his leg trying to defend a 3-point shot in the Elite Eight. The video remains difficult to watch, and it stands as one of the true lowlights from the tournament over the past decade.

The Cardinals would go on to win the game and the national championship, and Ware was able to return for the team's third game of the season the following year. But a slow return to health saw Ware declare 2013-14 a redshirt season, and he'd ultimately leave the program this offseason, transferring to Georgia State with immediate eligibility.

"I just feel like me leaving is a fresh start," Ware said at the time of his transfer. "I know a lot of people think of me and think of the leg. But, I mean, I play basketball. I don't want to be known as a guy who just played for Louisville and got hurt."

Ware now has a much larger role on an upstart squad and a great opportunity to carve out a space in the public consciousness beyond "the broken leg guy for Louisville."

Now a junior, Ware's playing far more minutes with the Panthers than he did on a more loaded Rick Pitino squad.

"It got annoying after a while," Ware said last week of the treatment he got in Louisville. "And I just really wanted to come home ... I will not be defined by that moment."

In 28.4 minutes, the 6-foot-2 point guard is averaging 7.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals, shooting 43.9 percent from the field. He's fourth on the team in scoring, third in assists and second in steals, ranking as perhaps the team's third-most important player behind volume scorers R.J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow.

In the Sun Belt championship game, it was Ware, not the potentially NBA-bound Hunter, leading the way, scoring a game-high 18 points that seems remarkable given the 38-36 final score.

Now, Ware finds himself back in the tournament, with his No. 14 Panthers set to take on No. 3 Baylor on Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla., a five-hour drive from where he played his high school ball in Conyers, Ga. When he hits the court, it will be the culmination of a two-year battle to regain his health and recreate his identity as a basketball player.

"I am so happy for him," head coach Ron Hunter, who tore his Achilles in the team's conference championship victory, said Sunday. "You guys have no idea. He's an unbelievable kid and he deserves that moment."

It's a great story, and Thursday would mark a nice final chapter, even if Ware does have a senior season left to play. But Ware and the Panthers, winners of nine of their last 10 to close the season, will look to make sure his One Shining Moment isn't just stepping back on the floor, but making some March Madness magic.