Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino knows what it's like to watch your team play its heart out and still lose an Elite Eight game.
In 1992, his sixth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats battled the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils into overtime. With 2.1 seconds left on the clock, Duke's Christian Laettner caught the ball off a 75-foot inbound pass from teammate Grant Hill, turned and launched a 17-foot shot to beat the buzzer and send Duke to the Final Four and the Wildcats home lamenting what could have been.
Pitino's second overtime Elite Eight chapter had a much better ending on Saturday.
His fourth-seeded Cardinals beat No. 7 seed West Virginia Mountaineers at The Pit in overtime, 93-85, but Pitino won't forget the feeling of being on the losing side of a game like that.
"The only bad thing about the whole incredible performance was having to go down and shake (head coach) John (Beilein) and West Virginia's hands," Pitino said. "As I remember so well in '92, we played such an incredible game, and Duke beat us like that."
Pitino said his heart went out to the Mountaineers because of how hard they played.
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Pitino said the game was one of the best he's ever been a part of - he's been a head coach since 1978 - especially because of the hole his team was able to climb out of.
West Virginia was up by as many as 20 points in the first half, riding the wave of a 10-for-14 three-point shooting performance. But Louisville crawled within 13 at halftime, and that's when Pitino told the Cardinals he's been in that position before.
"I told them at halftime, 'We're only down 13 and that team put on a shooting display like I had never seen before,'" he said. "Then I told them about the New York Knick comeback, I think it was 23 at Portland when Portland was really good. I cited about three, four different situations. I said, 'We're definitely going to win it. I see it. I know it.' That was the only mistruth I said in the whole motivational speech."
Despite Pitino's lack of faith, the bounces and breaks started to go Lousiville's way after halftime. That sort of thing happens to coaches who have stuck around for a while to see the good, the bad and the ugly, Pitino said.
"I've been involved in maybe the greatest NCAA game ever," he said. "You have to walk off the court and have a feeling inside that is indescribable. If you're in this game long enough, you'll see the victorious side."
Pitino's storied past had his players feeling comfortable as well, Louisville's Larry O'Bannon said.
"He just kept telling us about different experiences we had been in, telling us about different experiences that he had been in and just kept telling us to believe and just not to panic."
If Pitino and his Cardinals have their way, their next experience will involve cutting down the nets in St. Louis.
