St. Louis ? Francisco Garcia blamed no one but himself for his worst performance of the NCAA Tournament.

“I got some easy shots. I just couldn’t make them,” said Louisville’s junior standout, who went 2-for-10 in the Cardinals’ 72-57 loss to Illinois in the Final Four.

The 6-foot-7 swingman averaged 21 points in Louisville’s first four tournament games. He sank shot after shot in pregame warmups, bolstering his confidence.

“I really felt like it was going to be a good night,” he said.

But the three-pointer he missed from the wing 50 seconds in was an indication of what was to come.

Shadowed by Illinois’ Deron Williams and Luther Head, Garcia never found his range, missing all four of his three-point attempts. His two baskets came on a backdoor cut in the first half and an uncontested layup following a steal early in the second half.

“Deron did a great job, along with Luther, of not letting Garcia get going,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

Taquan Dean, Garcia’s roommate, said Illinois’ defense had little to do with his best friend’s struggles.

“They were just crowding him a little bit,” Dean said. “He didn’t play as well as he should’ve.”

Louisville's Francisco Garcia sits in the locker room after Louisville's loss to Illinois. The Cardinals fell, 72-57, Saturday in St. Louis.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino has said all season that Garcia has the tendency to try to do too much.

That’s what happened Saturday.

“Francisco didn’t let the game come to him,” Pitino said. “He got caught taking some tough shots, and he was concerned about being off. He was concerned that he wasn’t contributing enough. That was the only problem with it.”

Throughout the game, Pitino urged Garcia to keep shooting.

“He said, ‘Relax. The openings are going to come,”‘ Garcia said.

They did, but not the shots.

“I had good looks. For some reason, they were off tonight,” Garcia said.

None of Garcia’s teammates fared much better.

Larry O’Bannon, who shot 59 percent in Louisville’s last nine games, epitomized the Cardinals’ struggles by missing a layup with 2:39 left.