Louisville's Kevin Ware resting after surgery on broken leg

Kevin Ware is already up and walking, and he's got a nice souvenir to keep him company until he's cleared to return to Louisville.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino brought the Midwest Regional championship trophy when he visited Ware, who remains hospitalized after surgery to repair the gruesome fracture in his right leg suffered in the Louisville's 85-63 win over Duke on Sunday.

"He was real excited about [the trophy]," Pitino said after visiting Ware Monday morning. "I said to him, 'You want me to bring it back or stay with you?' He said, 'It's staying with me.' I said, 'All right - just make sure you don't lose it.' "

During a two-hour surgery Sunday night, doctors reset Ware's broken tibia and inserted a rod into the bone. Because the bone broke through the skin, Pitino said, doctors are monitoring Ware to make sure no infection develops. If there are no complications, he should be released Tuesday.

The Cardinals plan to leave for the Final Four in Atlanta on Wednesday night, and Pitino said they expect to have Ware with them. Ware is originally from the Bronx, but he moved to the Atlanta area before high school.

"He gets to go home, be with his family and be with us on the bench," Pitino said. "He's in very good spirits and anxious to get out of the hospital and get back with the guys."

Ware's right leg snapped in the first half of the Midwest final when he landed awkwardly after trying to contest a three-point shot.

But before Ware was wheeled off the court on a stretcher, he repeatedly urged the Cardinals to "just go win the game." They did, beating the Blue Devils to reach their second straight Final Four, and they said afterward there was no way they could have let Ware down.

"Right before the surgery, when he was able to watch the players at the press conference, the nurses and doctors told me that was the first time he broke down and cried, when the players were talking about him," Pitino said.

Ware's girlfriend stayed with him overnight, and his mother and her husband arrived Monday.

While some have speculated that Ware could have had a previous stress fracture that left him predisposed to such an injury, Pitino discounted that, saying there was "nothing prior."

"Basically his leg went one way and his shoe went another and the bone split," Pitino said. "There's no preexisting thing that makes it do that."