Donovan Mitchell played two seasons at Louisville under head coach Rick Pitino. Providence recruited him the hardest, but he wanted a full college experience so he ultimately chose to play in northern Kentucky over offers from Florida State and Kansas.
Although Rick Pitino and Donovan Mitchell won 48 of their 65 college basketball games together, they only made the NCAA Tournament during their second and final season. The No. 2-seed Cardinals were upset by the No. 7-seed Michigan Wolverines in the second round.
Mitchell went on to be drafted No. 13 overall in the NBA Draft. Pitino ended up being fired as a result of an investigation into alleged misconduct in recruiting.
Their time together was not as fruitful as either player or coach may have expected. Mitchell doesn’t regret his decision at all.
He loved playing for Pitino, who he says is “crazy.” The 27-year-old NBA superstar recently spoke about his experience on an episode of the Run Your Race podcast with Theo Pinson and A.J. Richardson.
Rick Pitino is intense!
The athletes got their day started with individual practices in the morning. They would get together as a team in the afternoon and Pitino would put them to work.
Four hours, press. Nonstop. Four hours […] nonstop. Nonstop.
— Donovan Mitchell
Mitchell took a visit to practice before making his college decision. The players on the team at the time warned him of what was to come and told him to be prepared.
I was like “nah, I’m watching y’all, it ain’t that bad! Like what’re y’all talking about?”
I’ll never forget, Shaqquan Aaron and Anton Gill, were like “yo, this is crazy!“
— Donovan Mitchell
Upon arrival to Louisville, Mitchell weighed 225 pounds. Pitino saw him get beat on one play during an exhibition game against the Puerto Rican national team. He immediately went to the trainer and told him that Mitchell needed to be at 195 before the season.
30 pounds, bro!
— Donovan Mitchell
While such a weight loss requirement was jarring at the time, Mitchell is grateful for the learning experience. It has helped him to stay in shape throughout his career by knowing exactly what he needs to do when.
Mitchell continued on to say that he “played his two years at college in fear” and joked that only reason that he played as well as he did at Louisville is because he was scared of Pitino’s wrath if he played poorly. The legendary coach was “another level” of crazy.
If a player committed a turnover, they would run. Mitchell fell off of the treadmill, on purpose— twice!
As Mitchell said, this is all in the past. They are still close to this day.
And… as Mitchell said, they went 26-12, so it worked!