Louisville’s Kevin Ware expected to be at Final Four

Kevin Ware is already up and walking, and he has 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 in Indianapolis after surgery to repair a gruesome fracture in his right leg.

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 New York City, but he moved to the Atlanta area before high school.

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

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Trey Burke of Final Four-bound Michigan and Indiana teammates Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller were among 10 players selected to the John R. Wooden All-American team.

The Wooden Award for the college basketball player of the year will be announced this weekend at the Final Four. The winner will be honored at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on April 12.

Doug McDermott made Creighton history last season when he was selected as the school’s first player on the AP All-American team. Now he’s done it again.

The 6-foot-8 junior forward, the second-leading scorer in Division I, was a repeat selection Monday, the 51st player to earn the honor in consecutive seasons.

Burke of Michigan and Otto Porter Jr. of Georgetown tied as the leading vote-getters for first team, and Oladipo of Indiana and Kelly Olynyk of Gonzaga were the others selected.

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Tubby Smith is headed to Texas Tech to try to turn around another wayward program.

Smith agreed to terms with Texas Tech to be its next coach, a person with knowledge of the deal told the AP on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made. Athletic department spokesman Blayne Beal said there was no agreement in place.

Smith was fired by Minnesota last week after six seasons.

ETC.

Western Kentucky headed to C-USA

Conference USA will add Western Kentucky and new Coach Bobby Petrino at the same time the league’s most recent football champion plans to leave.

Commissioner Britton Banowsky said that Western Kentucky will officially join C-USA on July 1, 2014. That will be after ex-Arkansas coach Petrino’s first season in charge of the Hilltoppers.

That is also when Tulsa, the defending Conference USA football champion, is expected to join a migration to the league that’ll no longer be known as the Big East.

A person familiar with the decision said Tulsa was planning to announce Tuesday that it will join the Big East football schools in their soon-to-be renamed league in 2014.