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 men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino brought the Midwest Regional championship trophy when he visited Ware, who remains hospitalized after surgery to repair a gruesome fracture in his right leg.

INDIANAPOLIS – Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino are finally doing an encore. For the first time since their teams played perhaps the greatest game in the history of the NCAA tournament, Krzyzewski and Pitino will meet in the tournament today when top-seeded Louisville faces Duke. In the regional finals, no less.

On Sunday, they rested. Well, later on Sunday, anyway. It was well beyond midnight when Notre Dame players shuffled across the Purcell Pavilion floor to head up a ramp and out to the parking lots, the same floor that a short while earlier flooded with frenzied bodies too delirious to process what they just saw.

After Louisville’s third straight loss, a 53-51 defeat at Georgetown on Saturday, coach Rick Pitino declared the next game a “must game.” Louisville (16-4, 4-3 Big East) has its longest losing streak since January 2010. No. 1 in the country a week ago, the Cardinals have fallen to Syracuse, Villanova and Georgetown and have Pittsburgh at home tonight ( 4 p.m., ESPN). “We have to get this win. It’s a must game for us,” Pitino said. “Because four (in a row), now you’re on the verge of getting a sub-.500 record in the league, and you don’t want to mess with that.” Pittsburgh (17-4, 5-3), which blew out visiting DePaul 93-55 on Saturday, has won four straight. – AP

Angel Nunez liked everything about the Gonzaga men’s basketball program, on and off the court. Nunez committed to the Bulldogs following Friday’s 94-87 win over Baylor. The 6-foot-8, 200-pound guard/forward left Louisville’s program earlier this month. He spent a few days visiting Gonzaga before flying home to New York on Saturday on his 21st birthday.