VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - Something I'll never forget during Svetistlav Pesic's short but successful time as the coach of Valencia Basket in 2010-11 was his approach to the mental side of the game.

He had zero tolerance for a player who reacted in a negative way to a refereeing decision.

Give me a euro for every time that Pesic yanked Valencia's Rafa Martinez out of the game because of the shooting guard's penchant for expressing frustration over a call by an official and I'd have plenty of money in the bank.

Spanish giants Barcelona got a taste of the Pesic philosophy a decade ago when he was their coach, leading them to glory in the Euroleague and the ACB.

There is a different approach in the Palau Blaugrana now with highly-rated and successful coach Xavier Pascual.

That was evident on Thursday, when the Catalan club took on Laboral Kutxa in a Turkish Airlines Euroleague Spanish derby, one that had no significance in terms of the Top 16 standings.

Barcelona went into the contest with first place in Group E and home-court advantage in the play-offs (quarterfinals) already sewn up.

Laboral Kutxa - aka Baskonia - had only pride to play for.

The team coached by former Spanish national team boss Sergio Scariolo had only four wins and no chance of advancing to the next stage of the competition.

The contest turned out to be significant in another way, however, because Barcelona's players revealed themselves to have a suspect mental approach.

If you weren't able to attend or watch this game live, go find a video.

It was the Google Glass game.

Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display that the Euroleague introduced basketball fans to in Palau Blaugrana.

Andres Nocioni and Marcelinho Huertas wore the sci-fi like glasses during the pre-game, and a referee, Tolga Sahin, donned the "wearable intelligence" during the action.

The Google Glass made Nocioni look like a Terminator.

In the first half, Barcelona looked as if they would keep their remarkable streak of Top 16 home wins alive courtesy of some scalding hot three-point shooting, especially from Spanish basketball icon Juan Carlos Navarro and Slovenia international Bostjan Nachbar.

Barcelona hit 10 of their first 11 three-pointers and raced into a huge advantage, 45-26, midway through the second quarter.

The blowout was on.

Or so it seemed.

The Barca offense then began to sputter, and Laboral Kutxa pulled to within 50-35 by half-time.

In the third quarter, the visitors increased the physicality on defense and Nocioni came to life on both ends of the floor.

He started scoring on drives, hitting three-pointers and, because of Barcelona's complaining, drained a technical free-throw.

Barcelona's performance level dropped substantially on defense and they directed their frustration at the referees.

Nachbar was so unsettled by Laboral Kutxa’s comeback that he went up to referee Sahin, looked at him straight in the face and motioned for him to take off his Google Glass.

It seemed to be a distraction so Sahin removed the Google Glass after the third quarter, by which time Laboral Kutxa had charged back to lead 66-60.

In the fourth quarter, though, Barcelona's fortunes didn't change. They only got worse.

Their loss of composure was astonishing.

Pesic would have stopped the game and marched the players to the locker room.

There may have been a questionable call here or a bad call there.

But really, there was no conspiracy and certainly nothing that should have elicited the sort of reaction that came from Barcelona.

One could only laugh when Navarro, still unhappy with the officiating in the fourth quarter, told Sahin to put the Google Glass back on.

Laboral Kutxa ended up winning 97-86 and Nocioni finished with 37 points.

It was a splendid effort from one of Argentina's greatest ever players, someone who will be at the FIBA Basketball World Cup this summer.

Why did Barcelona lose their cool?

Remember, this club has one of the most attractive rosters in Europe.

There are Navarro, Nachbar, Alex Abrines, Kostas Pananikolaou, Marcelinho, Victor Sada, Mario Hezonja, etc.

It's a roster to die for.

There are so many good players that a couple have to take a game off every so often.

On Thursday, Brad Oleson and Erazem Lorbek sat and watched.

Marcelinho may have had the "wearable intelligence" before tip-off, but there was no intelligence in their play in the second half against Laboral Kutxa.

There was only frustration and anger.

Ante Tomic, the Barcelona center, conceded: "We cannot lose our focus and energy complaining.

Pascual and Navarro also admitted the mindset had been wrong.

"We lost our defensive and offensive focus and from that moment, we crumbled," Pascual said.

Navarro said: "We were totally disconnected in the second half.

"We have to watch the video, but it was a matter of attitude and concentration."

Now, Barcelona carry a two-game losing streak into the playoffs.

They were beaten soundly in the previous round at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan.

Here's hoping the message in the locker room after the game and in the practices since has been to focus on their play and not the officiating.

If they become rattled like this again, Barcelona have no chance of winning the title at the Final Four in Milan.

They may not even make to Italy.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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