'The little things' sink the Cards again

NEW YORK – Reporters were clearing out of the home team's locker room late Thursday afternoon when Rick Pitino's voice cut through the quiet.

The coach called out for Louisville's sophomore star, Donovan Mitchell, who pulled off his headphones, grabbed his backpack and walked across the room, his head down.

Behind a whiteboard in U of L's locker room at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Pitino pulled up a chair to face Mitchell and held an impromptu, one-on-one conversation with his standout guard, who only made three of his 14 shots in his team's 81-77 loss to Duke in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament and shouldered much of the blame for the loss in his postgame interviews.

Mitchell needed the pick-up. This particular loss, he said, "really, really hurt." And he wasn't the only Louisville player visibly upset about the Cards' defeat, which came after they took a 61-49 lead with 13 minutes left and lost it in frustrating fashion.

All of the common ingredients in Louisville's seven other losses reared their ugly heads again on Thursday: The Cards (24-8) were 15 of 26 from the free-throw line and 4 of 21 from 3-point range. They whiffed on a box-out on a missed Duke free throw that led to a pivotal second-chance 3-pointer for the Blue Devils. And they panicked on the final possession, with a chance to tie the game, and didn't get to the correct spots on the floor to run the crunch-time play Pitino said they "practice every day."

"We should've been in a better position (to win) and we didn't put ourselves there, and that's on us as a team," Mitchell said. "When you have a bad game and you lose because of the little things, that's what makes it hurt more. You can't dwell on it, though."

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That was the overarching theme in Louisville's locker room in the bowels of this NBA arena just across the East River from Manhattan: U of L (24-8) can't afford to get too down after its disappointing loss because there is a much bigger tournament that begins next week.

Still, it stung.

Mitchell said he would urge his teammates to head to the practice facility as soon as they return home to Louisville to work on their free throws. They need to go around the gym, basket by basket, and make 10 in a row at each hoop, he said.

"We're not working on them enough (outside of team practice)," Mitchell said. "We're not working on them at all. We have to stay in the gym more and keep focusing in. ... I'll probably let everybody know: We all have to get in there."

Deng Adel, who delivered another strong performance to the tune of 21 points and five rebounds, was asked if he and his teammates will do what his roommate suggested.

"Yeah," the 6-foot-7 sophomore wing said. "Any chance we get."

The experience reminded the Cards' older players of the 2014-15 season, when they lost to North Carolina in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C.

That time they returned home for three days before the NCAA tournament selection committee gave them a No. 4 seed and shipped them to Seattle to play their first- and second-round games.

U of L bounced back and won twice in the Emerald City, eventually reaching the regional final in Syracuse, where they lost in overtime with a Final Four appearance on the line but viewed the season in a positive light.

"That was a tough couple practices in a row (in 2015)," junior center Anas Mahmoud said. "The NCAA (tournament) is a lot bigger than the ACC tournament. It's the Big Dance. If we want to go far in the tournament, we have to learn from this."

Junior guard Quentin Snider couldn't help but think Louisville beat itself. But he said he would pat Mitchell on the back and push his teammates to quickly move past Thursday.

"We're down right now but we have to get back in together, get our confidence up again," Snider said.

That process started with Pitino's locker-room chat with Mitchell.

And now, the week off now charges the coach with the task of curing what ails his team. He understands how thin the margin is between winning and losing in the NCAA tournament, and he also understands what will likely be the difference between his team realizing its Final Four hopes or falling short of them.

"We have got to cure these free-throw shooting woes," Pitino said. "You're going to have to shoot a decent percentage for six games to win a national championship, because (a missed foul shot) is like a turnover. ... If you shoot 15 for 26, some of those being the first end of a one-and-one, you're beating yourself."