Donovan Mitchell was another teenager playing an NCAA basketball video game, trying to reach the Final Four. But the Louisville freshman shouldn’t have had to pretend. He shouldn’t have had to imagine what it would be like to play in the NCAA Tournament.

One year ago, the Cardinals’ streak of nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances — including four straight Sweet 16s, two Final Fours and the 2013 national championship — ended when 16th-ranked Louisville (23-8) instituted a self-imposed postseason ban due to the program’s escort sex scandal, which involved none of the players barred from playing in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

While the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight were played on Louisville’s home floor, the careers of senior transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis had already concluded without either ever reaching the Big Dance. Younger teammates like Mitchell were still fuming, still reeling from last February’s announcement that no player saw coming.

“We didn’t want to believe it,” Mitchell, a Westchester native, said in a phone interview. “It was such a big shock because it came after our biggest win of the year against [No. 2] North Carolina. We went all the way from 100 to zero in a matter of [days]. A lot of us, we didn’t know how to handle it. It hurt a lot.

“I started playing the NCAA Tournament game, upset that we weren’t there. In the group texts, all we talked about was, ‘Man, we should be there. That should be us.’ ”

Now, that will be them. Now, there is little that can stop the eighth-ranked Cardinals (24-7) from making a deep run through March.

After losing its top three scorers from last year’s team, Louisville spent this season terrorizing opponents with arguably the country’s best defense, earning a double-bye in the ACC Tournament at Barclays Center. Boasting one of the nation’s deepest teams, the Cardinals finished the regular season No. 3 in the RPI, and could earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, based on their performance in Brooklyn.

Entering its first postseason tournament in New York since winning the 2013 Big East title, Louisville’s once-unproven roster has already beaten heavyweights like Kentucky, Duke, and Big Ten champ Purdue this season.

“Our schedule this year has been a meat grinder. It really has been and I think it’s helped us evolve,” coach Rick Pitino said following Saturday’s win over Notre Dame. “I was hoping I didn’t bury them mentally or physically. I didn’t expect to have this type of record … but they got through it, they did a great job and it’s made us a much better basketball team because of it.

“This team can accomplish anything because of their attitude.”

Mitchell, who morphed from Louisville’s fifth-leading scorer to an All-ACC First Team and All-Defensive Team member, gives much of the credit for his leap — and the success of the team — to the punishment that will never seem just.

It changed the players — and the coach, too.

“I’ve never seen coach this amped. He’s fired up,” Mitchell said of Pitino, who has denied having any knowledge of the allegations. “The theme this year was going in there and playing our butts off because last year we didn’t get that opportunity. We’re excited to be back and get ready to get to the national championship, hopefully. … A lot of the guys we have haven’t been in the tournament or played major minutes, so we’re so eager and so hungry to get to that point. We’re like that kid that always wants to reach that cookie, but can’t quite get it. Right now we’re trying to get that cookie that we couldn’t have last year.

“We’re so focused and so locked in. This is serious.”

And also thrilling, an opportunity which now cannot be taken for granted.

Mitchell will play his first postseason game in front of several friends and family members, hoping Brooklyn’s atmosphere is like the Big East Tournament games he attended growing up.

“I know how intense it gets,” Mitchell said.

Now, he’ll really know.