Pitt head coach Jeff Capel met with the media over Zoom after his team’s 56-51 win over Florida State on Wednesday night. Here is a complete rundown of his remarks.

Capel: Well I’m really, really proud of our guys to finish out this road trip — the third game in five days and to come out and fight like we did against this team on their home court. Really big time salute to our staff and our guys for getting prepared for this game after Monday’s loss — traveling and getting here really late, two long days here. I thought we had good preparation and I thought we did some really good things, some really tough things throughout the game. JB (Jamarius Burton) made some huge plays down the stretch for us. Obviously Ithiel was outstanding all game. Our guys found him and he delivered and made shots. I’m really glad took I took Jerry’s (DiPaola) advice from last time and got him more minutes. I thought the rest of the guys for Will (Jeffress) to have six rebounds all in the first half, he played really strong. For Mo to have 8 blocks. It’s interesting looking at the stat sheet and seeing Femi was 0-of-8 and 3-for-7 from the free throw line, I actually thought it was one of his best games from the floor. I thought he controlled the game for us. He made good decisions, we got the switches, and he attacked and made good passes. He had seven rebounds and played good defense. So again, big time win for us. I’m happy. It’ll be a good flight home and we’ll be back real late and we’ve got to turn around quickly and play NC State.

Questions.

You often stress to play good defense when the offense is struggling, how did you see them respond to that today?

Capel: Well again I thought we were terrific defensively. The things that we talked about in the game plan, I thought we did that. I thought we were up on ball screens. John did that, which was really good. We tried to plug the gaps. We knew that Florida State had not been a good three-point shooting team percentage wise and number of makes in conference play, so we wanted to try to make them a half-court team. We wanted to try to keep them out of our paint. I thought we did a good job of plugging the gaps and being there and keeping them out of our paint.

I think Florida State only led 2-0 and tied it a couple of times. With the game being played in such a tight window to stay poised in a close game, what did you like from your team tonight?

Capel: Well one of the things we talked about coming in was we have to have poise in the middle of chaos. Anytime you play Florida State, the game can be chaotic because of the way they defend is very different from everyone else. They switch everything. They take everything away, and so we really tried to simplify what we wanted to do offensively and take advantage of their switches. I just liked the fact that we had poise. Even at times we weren’t smart, but the decision that we made even in those situations like when they made the three to tie it up, we still had poise and guys stepped up and made big plays.

What has Horton done in practice to earn a start?

Capel: We haven’t been able to practice over these last few days because of our schedule: three games in five days. After last game when I went back and watched tape one of the things I just thought and I talked it over with my staff and I had made the decision, but I just felt like it was time. If nothing would have happened and we would have been whole, Ithiel would have most likely been a starter from the beginning of the year. I just felt like it was time to go back to what I felt like would be our best lineup and our best guys on the court. It wasn’t necessarily anything he’s done in practice, it was just a decision, a guy decision that I felt would be best for us. The other thing is that we knew how they were going to pressure the basketball. I wanted to have a ball handler off the bench. The way we had been starting, all of our ball handlers were starting for us. So we wanted to bring O (Onye Ezeakudo) off the bench, but the main thing is it was just a gut feeling. It was time, and fortunately for us he was able to make some shots and plays.

What was the impact of Gueye blocking shots and what does that do for your defensive confidence?

Capel: It was huge. Again a lot of the shots and blocks were off the basketball, but just to have that guy there that can erase some mistakes and a guy that’s there. I thought he did a really good. I thought he had a really good game, he had a chance to have a great game. He missed a lot of open shots, like wide open shots that he’s been making. He didn’t allow that to affect his effort and his commitment to playing really good defense.

Is that a sign of maturity for the whole team where they aren’t seeing a lot of shots fall, but it never let it get to them and they looked comfortable in an ‘ugly’ game because they were playing great defense?

Capel: I hope it’s a sign of maturity, it was a sign of maturity tonight. The big thing for us, can we have continuity with maturity? Can we have it where it just becomes who we are? That’s the test. We’ve shown in spurts throughout this year that we can be pretty good in spurts. We need to do it where we can become consistently good.

Speaking of maturity, how did Hugley to the technical and intentional foul calls?

Capel: Those weren’t smart plays and we took him out just to kind of talk to him for a little bit and he came back in and did some good stuff for us. He’s important for us. He’s a really, really good player. He hasn’t gone through this at this time of year. He didn’t have that experience last year, so all of these things are learning experiences for him. He’s a really good kid, so again he didn’t do some things right in that moment, but he had eight rebounds for us. He drew eight fouls. The play where he got the dunk, that was a big-time play, big-time finish and those are the things he needed to do for us. He had no turnovers, which was huge.

What has Horton done to show that he was ready to handle the ball late in games?

Capel: Well he just did it in that moment than we got the ball to one of our primary ball handlers. The way they were playing us, they were denying in the back court and we had a matchup that we liked right there with Wilkes on him, so it was easier for him to get the ball up and then we got into our offense. The reason I don’t want Ithiel running (the point) is because he’s our best threat from three. So in transition we want him off the ball running, because with the way he shoots it, it’s easier to get lost in his position. That’s one of the things we want him doing for us.

Obviously every win is important, but over a team like that that could go on a run and get back on the bubble and in an environment like this. Given the context, how important was it?

Capel: Well any win for us is big. We have so much respect for their program and for what Coach Hamilton has built. It was seven years before he got to the tournament and once he got there, he’s been pretty consistent and then they had a four-year stretch where they didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, but since 2017 they’ve been there every year. They’ve been one of the best teams in our league, they’ve won in our league. You know when you play them, you’re going to play an outstanding team that’s tough, together, and athletic and that can create chaos. So for us to be able to come into this environment at the end of — what my college coach used to say, ‘an energy cycle’. The third game in five days and to have the energy to play with the effort that we did is something that I’m really proud of.

What was Jeffress’ impact with those ten minutes at the end of the first half?

Capel: They were huge. He gave us six rebounds in those ten minutes. He made two big free throws for us. He had an opportunity right there at the basket, but he just missed. We have the confidence that he’s going to make it. He made an extra pass off a rotation that was a really smart play that led to us getting a foul and get to the free throw line. I thought he played some really, really good minutes for us.

What about Burton that allows him to shake off some struggles and come up big in late game moments?

Capel: Well he had a bad game last game. In the first half today he did some good things, he just got in foul trouble. With the way the game was being called, we didn’t want to go with him and we were able to kind of keep a lead in that first half. But he’s a mature guy, an older guy. He has a lot of experience in college basketball playing at a high level. He stepped up and made some big shots. I was happy that he took the three, that’s something he’s been hesitant to do in our previous games, he had only taken one three. He made a huge one for us tonight, it was in rhythm. Obviously one of the things he loves to do is get the mid-range and one of the things we talked to him about, especially for this game was that when you have those threes you have to be ready to shoot. He made big plays, made big free-throws for us and did a good job defensively.