Late Mistakes Doom Louisville In 70-68 Loss To Syracuse

I'd almost forgotten this feeling. I didn't miss it.

Louisville played perhaps its worst basketball of the season over the game's final minute, and as a result fell to No. 6 Syracuse 70-68 Saturday evening in front of the largest crowd ever at the KFC Yum Center.

An awful foul by Chane, an even more awful pass by Peyton, and then another questionable pass by Peyton and a bad drop by Gorgui all in the game's final minute resulted in the Cards tasting Big East defeat for the first time this season. On par with those poor decisions was the fact that Russ Smith, who scored a team-high 25 points, did not touch the ball once in U of L's final two possessions.

You don't expect a team to be perfect just because it's loaded with veterans, but you do expect them to make better decisions with the game on the line.

It's certainly not time to panic, but it is time to pull back a little bit on the praise and expectations that a national title is imminent. This team is still awfully good, but tonight proved that it has further to go than we thought.