Capel: 'I thought we were really, really worthy of winning tonight'

What stood out the most to Jeff Capel in Pitt's win over Syracuse Tuesday night? Here's the full rundown of everything Capel said after the game.

Capel: First and foremost, really proud of my team. We responded in a big-time fashion from last game. I think the thing I’m probably most proud of is the first half: when we could not make a shot, we did not allow that to affect our defense. That’s something that we’ve been preaching all year and we have’t done it all the time, but we did it at a very, very high level today. That allowed us to stay in the game, with how well we defended in the first half. And in the second half, we were able to make some shots, we were able to move against the zone, had great movement, but we still continued to defend at a high level.

I thought our guys were incredibly tough, I thought we were together, we had 15 assists on 20 field goals, I thought we shared the basketball well, and just big-time strong performances from everyone. You know, those guys didn’t do anything as far as scoring, but the four guys off the bench really, really played well. Their defense, offensive rebounds - Noah’s in the second half led to a three-pointer, huge play - and just their energy.

Obviously, Jamarius was tremendous, everywhere on the floor. O probably had his best game, and the thing he did best was defend; it really made the night hard on Girard. Mo obviously was terrific, as he settled into the game and found spaces against the zone.

And I thought, it’s oddly one of John’s best games. One of the reasons for that - we talked to him about this when we played at Syracuse, I told him, ‘You have significant impact on the game without scoring, because it’s going to be difficult and what you can do is score late.’ But he didn’t do that up there; he really did it today, with how he set the tone rebounding the basketball, playing at the high post, making good passes, having patience there, and then late in the game he was able to get some baskets.

So, just really proud of our guys, proud of the performance; hopefully we can bottle this up and take it on the road with us to Boston.

You talked about talking with John about making a difference without scoring. As a coach, can that be a difficult thing sometimes to teach a young guy, especially a guy like him that’s used to some big performances?
Capel: I think it’s difficult for anyone that’s used to scoring. It’s an adjustment, and so many of these young people - and I say this, I was probably like then when I was their age - you know, you base everything on scoring. Like, you base whether you have a good game. Normally when you talk to people, your family, your friends, whatever - ‘Hey, how’d you play? How many points did you score?’ - that’s normally the first question - ‘How many points did you score?’ - so many people place value on that. The people that know basketball and understand it understand that there’s so many different ways you can affect the game.

For him, it’s an opportunity to learn and to grow, because he impacted the game at such a significant level, and he has the opportunity to do that. I thought how he defended today was really good. He was up on the ball screens, he was at the level - when we wanted to hedge, he was there. He was in the midline for help. He talked. All of those things that are necessary to be a good team and a good defender.

You’ve talked all year about having issues on the offensive end and not taking it to the defensive end. Why do you think it clicked tonight?
Capel: I’m not sure. I wish I knew. Our guys were really tough. They were really, really tough. We talked - we had to be physical in this game. I didn’t think we were very physical up at Syracuse. We got bumped off a lot, we allowed straight-line drives; up there, our inability in the second half to make a shot really, really affected us on the defensive end. Hopefully it’s a growth thing, hopefully it’s something that we understand, we learn and we can bottle this up and grow from it and be better the rest of the year.

You didn’t have a lot of time to recover after Saturday; did you get two pretty good practices the last couple days?
Capel: We couldn’t do much Sunday because we didn’t pull back in here until around midnight. It was another physical game, Clemson’s a physical team team. So Sunday was more of a mental day. We did get on the board, we went through some of the things, how we wanted to attack the zone, just the movement, some new things we wanted to do, some wrinkles that we saw from the last time. And then we really tried to work on ball screen defense. Our ball screen defense the last three games has really been poor, and we’ve not had an active help side - we’ve just given up a lot since Virginia on ball screen defense. So we really tried to focus on two areas: wing ball screens and middle ball screens, and to get our rotations down there.

Monday’s practice was pretty good. It started out a little sloppy against the zone; we turned it over. But as we got into it, I thought we really did a good job. I thought guys’ antennas were up with what we had to do defensively, the ball screen stuff, being physical. So I did think we had a couple of good days of preparation.

How important was it to be opportunistic defensively? You guys ended up with 15 fast-break points, and you mentioned O and Jamarius with those steals in transition.
Capel: But also, when we got rebounds, we wanted to push it. That’s one of the things that we talked about. We felt like we could push it and beat the zone down, get some stuff before they get set up. So we did that a couple times. Obviously the steals when we were able to break out and get transition baskets - that’s huge for us, because obviously we can struggle to score in a half-court. So again, I thought those plays were big for us.

Your guys talked about seeing the zone for the second time and how it really helped them. But more importantly, you have a lot of guys that are young or new or whatever; how important is just playing and seeing not just the zone but seeing ACC basketball, seeing different defenses - how much of that experience is just - as much as you want to teach it and coach it, that is how they’re going to learn and get better?
Capel: Yeah, it took us three halves to understand how to attack the zone, because we didn’t attack it well in the first half. I think we were 21%, eight turnovers in the first half. But again, we kept battling.

The thing we’re trying to impress on them and get them to truly understand is just how hard it is to win. Like, it’s hard. Especially when you haven’t won. We, as a program, haven’t won consistently in awhile. And it’s hard. So, trying to create the habits that are necessary, you know, to understand, when we go to Clemson and they’ve lost three in a row - they have those habits, they’ve had some continuity in their program with their coach that’s been there for awhile and with guys in the program, they have some veteran guys that understand the standards and the tenets and the things that they teach. We don’t. That’s the reality. We’re trying to teach that. So that’s the thing - to understand those things, to understand, like, Syracuse just lost, they’re a proud program, this is how they’re going to come. This is what’s required. BC is going to have a tough week. They lost yesterday, they play today, we’re going to get them on the third day; they’re a good team and they’re going to be hungry because they felt like they should have won here.

So just getting them to understand how you have to show up every day, how hard it is to win and the things that are required on a daily basis to do it if you want to win consistently, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

Offensively and defensively, how important was O tonight?
Capel: He was huge. He was huge. What he did with his defense on Girard - he’s strong enough where Girard couldn’t bump him off. O could get under him a little bit and knock some basketballs away from him. He made some timely three-pointers for us, he penetrated the zone, he had poise out there - he was huge for us.

Obviously there are four guys between Mo, Jamarius, John and Femi who are responsible for a lot of the teams scoring on a daily basis. How much can a performance like this from O - is that a sign to you that you guys, even if it’s not the same fifth guys every game, that there is some scoring punch in this team beyond those four?
Capel: Look, we struggle to score. Some of those four can struggle to score at times. I’m not as concerned with that. We have to score together and it’s got to be by committee and it’s got to be different ways. The thing we have to do is play hard, play together and be tough; that’s what has to show up on a nightly basis for us, on a daily basis for us, whether it’s in practice, whether it’s in a game, that’s what has to show up. And it needs to be all 12 guys doing it. Not four or five or six; it needs to be everybody.

Mo talked about how, going into this game, they were looking back at the film and the rebounds were a big issue. You had him with 10, John with 18, what did you see out of them understanding that part of the game and how it generated other things for you guys?
Capel: I just thought when we played them up there, again, the physicality. We got pushed around, and that’s something - besides the last two minutes when it seems like they got about six offensive rebounds - I thought we did a pretty good job of that throughout the game. That’s something we’ve emphasized in practice, we’ve tried to work on in practice, which we do just about every day, but I thought we were able to carry it over to the game today.

You had some of your older guys - J.B., Mo and O - lead you guys in scoring today - how much have you seen that has rubbed off on the younger guys on your team, maybe some of the younger guys Will and Nate who didn’t score a lot today - how much have you seen this year rub off from those older guys on the younger class?
Capel: I think the thing with those guys that you mentioned, if they learn anything, is the preparation. J.B. and Mo are arguably our two hardest workers. They’re the guys that are gym rats. They’re in here before, they have routines, they’re in here afterwards, they get in here at night, they get in here in the morning and things like that. And O is a guy - O’s class schedule is a lot different from most of our guys, so his stuff is a little bit different. But he’s a worker, and he’s a guy that shows up and gives his all every day. But that’s hopefully something that our guys, all of our guys, learn.

You guys had your best free throw shooting performance of the season - 85% - and shot it well last week against Virginia, too; are you seeing strides in practice in that area that’s translating at this point?
Capel: To be honest with you, it’s not something we really work on that much in practice. We were working on it earlier, we were not making them; I decided, ‘Let’s not even talk about it. Maybe it’s in their head.’ Guys get in and they work on it on their own. They’ll work out with a coach and maybe at the end shoot some free throws. But to be completely honest with you, it’s something that I’ve tried - I thought it was in their head, so I’ve tried not to talk about it that much. We have done a better job. Hopefully that’s something we can do, because we do a good job of generating fouls and getting to the foul line.

You talked a lot this season about stacking wins. You guys had Louisville and then you had a stretch where you didn’t play well. Now you get to face a team on the road that you beat before; how do you channel that energy that had in this game and get them to follow through with another one?
Capel: We need to come back and have a really good practice on Thursday. We need to be mentally focused on B.C. We can’t have a hangover from today and come back thinking that we’re really good now. We have to stack days. We have to be worthy of winning, and I thought we were really, really worthy of winning tonight.