Capel on adversity, N'Dir's contributions, Ellison and more

Jeff Capel talked about responding to adversity and more after Pitt beat Central Arkansas Thursday night, and here’s a full rundown of what he said.

Capel: This was a good win for us, playing against a team with this size. For us to be able to win the battle on the boards and have 13 offensive rebounds was really good. I was proud of our team for how we responded to adversity. It was a very weird game early and it was hard to get a rhythm. A big part of that had to do with them, with Central Arkansas: they came out and hit three’s right away. But it was just a weird game and I thought we responded to that adversity and I thought we did some really good things.

Obviously, we shot the ball really well. I thought Terrell Brown once again came in and gave us great minutes off the bench. Obviously Wilson-Frame did. But I thought Sidy came in and was a calming influence on our offense, you know, with X being out. And then toward the end of the half, I thought Malik did a really good job running our offense. Once we got to the second half and got X back out there, we were able to get into a better rhythm offensively and to rebound the ball and get out in transition and make some big plays.

So, really proud of our team. We have a quick turnaround, we need to move past this immediately and start our preparation for Saturday afternoon.

What was the explanation that got about Xavier’s tech?
Capel: I didn’t really - I don’t know. I didn’t really get one.

How would you assess the defensive performance overall? They shot very well, but you also turned them over 23 times.
Capel: We had some breakdowns, especially giving up middle penetration and I don’t think our talk - we have to improve there. But we did play hard and we forced 23 turnovers, so there’s a little bit to give with that. Obviously, I think we’ve defended better the first three games, but again, some of this had to do with them. They had some guys in the first half hit three’s that have not hit three’s this year. They had a guy hit two that wasn’t really a shooter and they came at the end of the half and one bounced up, hit the back part of the rim and bounced in. So we had some misfortune there. But again, to force 23 turnovers, to only allow them seven offensive rebounds, that part was good.

Is part of the gameplan when you’re playing against a team where you’re giving up size, ‘Go to the rim and try to get fouled’?
Capel: It’s going to be - I think one of the best ways to defend the post is to have great pressure on the ball. Right now, the teams that we’ve played, even if they’re bigger than us, we feel like we have an advantage on the offensive end because one of those big guys is going to have to pull away from the basket, so we are going to look to drive, kick and make a play - whatever the play is. It just happened today that we got fouled a lot. I thought our guys did a really good job of attacking.

You spoke about overcoming adversity; how much does X, with sitting out so much in the first half and having to push back against adversity, how much did he embody that tonight?
Capel: I thought he did a really good job of coming out ready to play in the second half. He could have sat on the bench in the first half - he sat 17 minutes and you take the 15 minutes at halftime and that’s sitting for awhile, for over a half hour. And I thought he did a really good job of keeping himself in the game, got a great warmup and I thought he did a really good job.

Every opportunity for us is a learning opportunity and I think he learned a great deal tonight. We have to store that and move forward.

What do you think he learned?
Capel: I think he learned how to overcome adversity. He had two early fouls, one on a technical foul; I think he had one foul the rest of the game, so to play the rest of the game and still be aggressive and have one foul and be able to stay in the game - in the second half, to mentally be into it instead of pouting and worrying about what happened or thinking you got screwed, I think that’s what he learned.

In the last couple games, Jared Wilson-Frame has come off the bench and immediately started shooting. How much emphasis are you putting on getting him involved in the offense as soon as he comes in?
Capel: A lot. He’s a guy who can put up points. But more than anything, he’s a guy who can create plays, and we want Jared to be aggressive when he has open looks. All of our guys have confidence in him when he has an open look, and we look for him. But I’ve said since I’ve been here and had a chance to work with him that I think there’s a lot more to his game than he has shown. I think he has a really good feel and I think he can pass. The thing that I like is that he’s been efficient in doing this. That’s something we talked about a lot this summer, and that shows that he has trust: he trusts his teammates, he trusts what we’re doing, and he’s not forcing the issue and he’s not just been a really good offensive player, he’s been a really efficient offensive player.

You’ve had Malik down on the block guarding a four, today he ends up bringing the ball up; how important is his versatility to what you’re able to do?
Capel: It’s very important. When he decided to come back and be a part of what we were doing, that’s one of the things I talked to him about - that he’s a guy who can kind of be everywhere for us, and we need that. We need him to be smart, we need him to help these young guys out. But you’re going to be kind of all over the floor and I think he’s versatile enough where he can do that. He’s experienced, he’s strong, he’s athletic and he’s competitive, so he’s been able to do a pretty good job the last two games defending guys that are bigger than him.

4-0 is a small sample size, but how is your team handling success?
Capel: I think we’ve been pretty good with it. We have to continue to be good. We have to continue to show up every day and to work and to understand that this is a marathon; this is not a sprint and every day is really, really important and every day is an opportunity. One of the things I talked to them about yesterday was, don’t take these days for granted. It goes fast and don’t take it for granted, don’t take this moment for granted, don’t take a day of practice, a game, a film session - all of these things are opportunities for you to get better individually and for us to get better, and to cherish that and to understand that. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of staying in the moment. We need to continue to do that.

You have a lot of young guys; are you interested to see how they deal with turning around from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon?
Capel: I am. That’s something that, when we were putting together the schedule, we did it this way purposely. We may have a moment in the ACC where it’s a Thursday-Saturday and it’s a Saturday noon game; how do you respond to that? We play a noon game next Wednesday; that’s something that was really important to me to have a game before that game at noon to see how we respond to that. Because it’s different. Your preparation is different. It’s one day of preparation. When you have a seven o’clock game, you do all of these things; our Saturday will be very different so I am interested to see how they respond to that.

How do you think they’ll respond?
Capel: We’ll be ready. I think we’ll be ready. We’ve got to be ready.

When you brought Sidy in, was this the sort of game and the situation with X, was this why you brought him here?
Capel: We brought him here to be a really good player and he’s a guy that’s won and he’s played a lot on a team that won, so I thought he had that in his DNA and could bring that to us. He’s competitive, he’s athletic, he can defend multiple positions on the perimeter. He’s still getting in shape because he was hurt so much, so he had to play extended minutes in the first half and I thought he got a little bit tired. But I thought he did a really good job and I thought he settled us down on the offensive end and made some really good plays for us.