Georgia State University is not a school with which one would heavily associate college basketball. Located in downtown Atlanta, the institution has just under 24,000 undergraduate students and its Panthers basketball team plays in the Sun Belt Conference. It is a conference that does not get much attention, home to barely mid-major schools like Appalachian State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Monroe and Texas State, among others.
But this year is different for the Panthers. Yesterday, in an…um…interesting game, they defeated the in-state rival Georgia Southern Eagles for the Sun Belt Conference title and thus earn a spot in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
This is significant for one particular Panther: a junior guard from Rockdale County, Georgia named Kevin Ware. Why is this significant? Well, just two years ago, Ware was a freshman member of the Louisville Cardinals team that won the tournament under the guidance of Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.
Ware only averaged 16.6 minutes and posted 4.5 points per contest as a freshman, but his skills aren’t what put him on the map that year. Rather, in the first half of an Elite Game against the Duke Blue Devils, Ware became a household name after suffering a gruesome leg injury while attempting to block a shot. Louisville rode their support for him all the way to the title game against Michigan, winning 82-76. Ware was on the court for the celebration, having undergone surgery just days earlier.
He returned to the court the following season, playing limited minutes in nine games, but then decided to redshirt and ultimately transfer to “move on” from the injury and to be closer to his family in Georgia. In today’s Sun Belt final against Georgia Southern, though he only posted averages of 7.3 points and 1.7 steals per game (in 28.1 minutes), Ware scored 18 points and pulled down five rebounds and was named the Sun Belt Tournament MVP. Not at all bad for someone whose career was thought to be in jeopardy just two years ago. In what can only be called irony, Georgia State head coach Ron Hunter actually tore his Achilles during the celebration.
But Ware’s story isn’t over yet. He and his fellow Panthers have a game against the ever tough Baylor Bears to open their tournament journey on Thursday, and they’ll have to shoot a lot better than the 33 percent they did against Georgia Southern. Ware may not be the go-to guy but if the team can rally behind his heart and come together, they could have the making of a major upset.
Moreover, it would be a giant step forward for a young man whose future was cloudy not long ago, and proof that he is far from done.
*Section Photo credit to Matthew Holst, Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to The Sports Inquirer
