After Pitt's 103-51 win over Clarion on Saturday, Jeff Capel, Nelly Cummings and Blake Hinson met the media.
Here's the full rundown of what they said.
Capel: It was good to finally play someone else, to have our whole team whole with the guys that we have healthy and to be able to sub, to be able to get rotations and to get guys to play as hard as they possibly can. That’s been a little bit difficult for us in practice as we have nine scholarship guys that are able to go right now. K.J. Marshall’s done an unbelievable job in practice of helping us so we can do some five-on-five. So it was good to get 40 minutes of five-on-five.
I thought we did some good things. We have a lot of stuff that we have to improve on. We’ll get to the tape, we’ll watch it, we’ll figure it out, we’ll gather back together on Monday and start teaching again. We have some time before our next exhibition game, so we’ll look to correct some of the things that need to be corrected and continued to work to get better every day.
Nelly, how did it feel getting to play in the Pete, being from the area? Cummings: I think it felt really good, man. I had my family here, and just to get the environment, get the first - get our feet wet out here a little bit, get everybody a chance to contribute, I think it was a good time for sure.
You guys shot 42% from three; what was working in that department? Cummings: The guy sitting over there (Blake Hinson), Greg Elliott, Nate Santos, those guys are shooters, so as long as we get them the ball in the right spaces, they’re going to make shots.
Blake, you hadn’t played for awhile for different reasons, but how did it feel just to get some actual action with some competition? Hinson: Awesome. Awesome.
You guys had a lot of different scorers today; what led to being able to feed off each other, what have you guys been able to establish? There’s a lot of new guys here that just got to this room. Cummings: I think that’s going to be our thing this year. We have to share the ball. We all have to contribute. We can’t be just a one-man team. We have to be able to contribute multiple different ways, scoring, assisting, playing defense and everything. This is a together unit, and that’s what we’re going to keep doing every single time we play.
Nelly, you were running the pick-and-roll with Federiko, with both of the Diaz Graham brothers, with a lot of guys. How comfortable were you running the point, running the pick-and-roll? Cummings: I’m very comfortable running the point, and especially with those types of guys who set those good screens. They get me open, so I’m able to make decisions seamlessly when they set screens like that.
What is it like for you to play with them? Those are two guys who can play inside, but they can also shoot and extend the floor? Cummings: I think it’s good playing with those guys. Like you said, they can do both things. They’re versatile. So there’s nothing on the court that I feel like they can’t do. It’s definitely good playing with guys like that.
Jeff, what have you learned about your team so far compared to this time last year? Capel: Well, I’ve just focused on our team this year. That’s it. And these guys have worked really, really hard. We’ve been unbelievably together. In the first half, I was a little bit disappointed. I thought the first half numbers, as far as assists-to-field goals made, were not what they’d been in practice. Number one, we had too many turnovers. It was eight assists and six turnovers in the first half. But I think we had eight assists on 17 made field goals; that’s been very opposite of how we’ve been in practice.
The second half was more indicative of how we’ve been. We had 13 assists in the second half on 21 made field goals and we only had two turnovers. So this team has really shared the basketball, we’ve shot the basketball extremely well in practice, the spacing has been good and it’s been good. We have to improve defensively, especially our interior defense. And we have a lot of work to do, but they’ve really worked hard.
How has Nate progressed from last year and how much have you seen him grow up? Capel: Yeah, he’s progressed a lot. He’s in better shape, his body is different, mentally he’s in a better space. It was tough. You come in, you don’t really have a summer because of Covid and the protocols, there was some things that we can’t do, he missed his whole senior year of high school and he’s thrust into a moment that maybe he’s not ready for early. He played and did some good things but then he sat for a little bit and I think he used it all as motivation.
He’s been really good for us and we need him to be really good for us. I thought today he ddi some really good things defensively for us. He’s learning how to play stronger, learning how to use that body and he’s done a really nice job for us.
Last year, you guys had a lot of games where you just played five or six guys and that’s what you had to ride with. Now you have more guys, how does it feel being more confident about that? Capel: I feel confident in all the guys we have on our team. All of them are good players. The main thing is being about the right thing, being about the team, and everyone trying to figure out, what can they do to help us win? That’s what it always has to be about. That’s the way we’ve been, pretty much the whole time. We’ve had some moments, like everyone does. I thought we had a couple moments at the start of the second half. There was a little stretch there in the first half where we didn’t do that. But the great thing about this team is that we’ve been able to get out of it pretty quickly. Hopefully that’s something that continues.
Without John, you got a look at how you’re going to use the other big men - the twins and Fede - what did you like about those rotations? Capel: They’re good. First of all, they’re not John. So that’s the very first thing we have to realize. They’re not guys that you’re going to feed the ball inside to a lot, like we will when John’s able to return. So we have to figure out different ways. They’re guys that are more - Fede is more in the dunker spot. He’s more of a guy that’s going to rim-run and play above the rim and do things there. G - Guillermo - is a guy, he can pop. He’s more of a skilled, he’s more of a pick-and-pop guy, he can pass it. With his strength right now, he’s not able to post because he doesn’t have a strong enough base, but there are things that he can do that really help our team be in a better place. His passing, his cutting, his intelligence. He really knows how to play and he really knows how to play off of guys. And he can shoot the basketball. He didn’t make a three today, but that’s something that he can do.
Again, we’re just trying to figure out the strengths of each guy and put every person in position to help them be at their best, which will help us be at our best.
Nelly, I know this is an exhibition game and you guys were up big, but in the second half, Clarion came out and had a 6-0 run. You had a possession where you took the ball at the top of the key and just drove in. How much of that was a play that you guys called or you called to make that happen? Cummings: For me, that was just a recognizing the moment type of situation. I saw where our team was at; we had a little lapse, a human-nature lapse, so I wanted to come out and be aggressive and show the team that we needed to push and keep going. That was my way of doing that.
What’s it like playing with Greg on the court? It seems like he has a ton of energy. Hinson: That’s my boy. That’s my favorite thing about G3. He’s always got a smile on his face. It makes it really fun to play with him.
Is there a key guy that has kind of taken charge that you can look to as a commander right now? Or is that still working itself out? Capel: We have several guys that have stepped up and done it. Nelly’s one of them. Blake’s one of them. He’s got a great voice in the locker room. Greg’s one of them. Jamarius obviously, Nike - it’s been a group thing that’s done it. And it’s going to be a committee for us all year. Guys do it. Guys have to take ownership of it. This group has so far. We’ve faced a little bit of adversity; not much. We know that that’s coming, as far as games are concerned, when it’s tighter, when the competition’s a little bit better - that’s no disrespect, but when you’re playing against the teams that we’re going to play, we know it’s going to be tighter. So we’ll see in those moments who steps up.
But I think we have a lot of guys that can.
That play that Nelly was asked about early in the second half, is that the kind of play that you’re hoping he will be able to do? Maybe him and Jamarius can give that for you guys as veteran guards. Capel: Yeah, I was more concerned about us getting stops, not about us driving to get a play. I mean, we didn’t come out with the necessary energy defensively that’s required and we need all the time, so I was more concerned about that than the drive that he made. I’m glad that he made it and we finished it, but I was more concerned that, just in that moment, we weren’t playing hard, we allowed human nature to take over. But again, we were able to get out of it pretty quickly.
What’s your sense of when John will be ready to go? Capel: Hopefully before our first game against Tennessee-Martin. We’ll probably know a little bit more next week. He gets evaluated again on Tuesday, and we’ll hopefully have a better timeframe then.
Will you be scrimmaging any other teams before the next exhibition game? Capel: No. We can only do two exhibitions or one scrimmage and one exhibition.
Have you done any scrimmage? Capel: No. We can only do two exhibitions or a scrimmage and an exhibition or two scrimmages.
How did the twins and Fede respond to John being out? Capel: They’ve stepped up. It’s been an opportunity. They are unbelievable young men, they want to be a part of something, they’re easy to be around, they’re fun to be around and all three of them are workers. It’s interesting, the guys on the team call them the triplets. They’re always together. So they’re workers.
Where it hurt us a little bit tonight is that we haven’t worked on defending the post, because we don’t really have anyone that posts. That’s an area where we need to get back and get some work in. But all three guys are good players and they’re very different.
Fede is more of the athlete, the guy that can play above the rim, finish above the rim and things like that. G is more of the skilled guy.
Jorge is a guard. He’s a perimeter player. He’s not a big guy. He’s a perimeter player and that’s how we’re going to use him.
What did you make of Nike in his first game back? Capel: It was great to see him out there. He’s had a very good - I don’t know if you call it camp with what we do, but since we’ve started practice. I think it’s been about two weeks since he’s been cleared to go full 100% of practice. When we first started practice, he was able to do 80% of every drill. The next week was more of 90%. And then he got to 100%, so it’s been a couple of weeks.
He’s a really good player and he’s going to be an important player for us. It was great to get him some minutes and have him do some really good things out there.
