Louisville coach Rick Pitino is famous for knowing his player's body-fat percentages. In an interesting twist, it could be one of his player's weight loss - not fat loss - that is a major key for Louisville's 2016-17 season.

Despite not starting for most of the season, Mitchell was a regular in Louisville's lineup last season and his minutes figure to double this season with Damion Lee and Trey Lewis moving on. After last season, Rick Pitino brought Mitchell in and asked him to trim weight.

“Donovan took off and you won’t recognize him," Pitino said at Media Day. "I realized it last year, I couldn’t figure out why he was getting beat so much defensively, even though he is a low body fat guy. I just felt that 213 lbs for a 6-foot-2 guard is way too heavy. And I didn’t realize that he was 213 because he was low body fat but now he is at 195, and when you take off 18 lbs, that is going to make you much quicker and much more athletic and he looks terrific.”

Mitchell said the conversation was a surprise because he always felt he was in great shape, but he can already feel a difference.

"I haven't been under 200 since probably my sophomore year of high school," Mitchell said.

Mitchell's new body drew immediate praise from professional scouts, 17 of which were at Louisville's practice Tuesday. Pitino said they loved his lateral quickness and his work on his jumpshot.

“The number one thing we worked on with Deng (Adel) and Donovan was their arc," Pitino said. "We call it Steph Curry ark. If we can get anything close to that, we are really excited. The only one that is close to that kind of arc is Ryan McMahon when shooting the ball. Their arc has improved so much. Their confidence has improved so much. They have shot the ball thousands and thousands of times working on this ark. They’re very, very dedicated basketball players. They’re gym rats – they love the game, they love the gym.”

Mitchell's weight loss will help with Louisville's new faster pace this season. Pitino made it clear before the first Red-White Scrimmage that he expects his team to use pressure, up-tempo man-to-man defense throughout the game.

"We feel we have a deep bench, good shot blocking, so we are utilizing that more and the tempo is much more up-tempo, and even though we have always been an up-tempo team," Pitino explained.

Pitino has also been impressed with Mitchell's leadership along with seniors Mangok Mathang and Quentin Snider.

“Yeah, Mangok, Q, and Donovan are all terrific leaders," Pitino said. "But with this team like I said, they’re very unique. I think you guys covered them last year so you know how special they are as young men. This is not your norm. These guys are not the norm. When I travel around and look at the young culture today, it’s not like these guys. I mean, I hope going forward I get teams like this again but these guys are very, very unique."