Capel on Pitt's 71-64 loss to Florida State

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel met with the media following Pitt’s 71-64 loss to Florida State on Saturday. Here is a complete rundown of everything he had to say.

Capel: Congrats to Florida State. They were terrific this afternoon. I thought coming in that they had been playing so much better than their record. They had some injuries and things to get adjusted to earlier that really set them back. They started to get a little bit healthier and guys understand their roles. They still have a lot of talent on that basketball team and they showed it tonight. So congrats to them.

I thought we got off to a really good start. I thought we had really good energy at the start of the game, the first 5 1/2 minutes, then we were not able to sustain it. From the 14 1/2 minute mark of the first half for the rest of the half, we didn’t play well. I thought we allowed our inability to make shots affected our defense. I thought we got off to a really good start in the second half. We were able to close the gap on a 10-point lead and grab a three-point lead. But again, we weren’t able to sustain it. We did not defend up to our standards and like we needed to. We need to to win basketball games in this league. For a team, they shot 51% from the floor and 50% from three. That is not going to win you a lot of games. We have to do a better job there as we go forward. We’ve been good on that side of the ball all season, but we were not good there today and they took advantage of it. So again, congrats to them.

What stood out to you about Darin Green’s performance?

Capel: Well he’s a really good player and when guys get going and get into a rhythm, it can be very difficult to defend them. He shoots it with range. He knows how to move without the basketball and as a really good shooter, he understands how to get open. There’s an art to that. Whether it’s reading screens, getting balls in transition, offensive rebounds getting lost and off of turnovers getting lost. He does a really good job of that and he hit some tough ones too.

You have a challenging stretch coming up, do you expect this loss to give you guys a bit of a jolt?

Capel: I don’t expect it to give us anything. We’ll move on from it. When we get back together on Monday, we’ll learn from and we’ll move on and start getting prepared for the next one.

Is Florida State the classic team that is better than their record?

Capel: They’re a lot better than their record. Like I mentioned earlier in my opening statement, they had a lot of injuries to start the season. They had a kid who is very talented that was suspended. When you get prepared for a season and as you get close to playing and you start adding injuries to key guys, that can really mess you up. Because now it puts guys…the guys that got hurt for them probably would have been starters or guys that played a lot of minutes. There is an adjustment. Guys roles are different, maybe they were working up to that point in a secondary role to now you’re in a primary role. That can take some time to get adjusted. I think they played very well in this league. Obviously they came in at 4-4 and they just won on the road at Notre Dame. They’ve been competitive in just about every game, even the ones that they’ve lost. So I do think they are a very talented team. They have top-100 guys over there, a top-25 guy over there out of high school. They’ve got the sixth man of the year from last season. They have talent even though they have some injuries. They are a very talented team and they played very well this afternoon.

Were your shortcomings on defense the product of a long season or anything else?

Capel: I didn’t like the energy that we played with for the last 14 minutes of the first half. I thought we allowed our inability to make shots affect our defense. That hasn’t happened to us in a little bit. They made some tough shots. (Burton) mentioned the couple of plays, one where we were taking the ball out of bounds going full court. We turned it over and they got a three. Another one we get a defensive rebound and we just throw it away and they get a three. Those are big plays, especially when those are momentum changing plays. We have to do a better job of valuing the basketball and those are the plays right there where guys can get lost in transition because you’re not ready to defend them. Two of Green’s threes came on those plays.

What did you see on that play where Elliott fouled Green on a three and what did you guys talk about in the huddle?

Capel: I didn’t see anything. I didn’t talk to Greg about the play. We just immediately talked about what we wanted to do on offense.

You guys generally shot a lot of threes and you say you are fine with them if they are good shots. Were they good shots today?

Capel: Some were and some were not.

Did you think you guys were aggressive enough on offense today in the first half?

Capel: I thought we didn’t move the ball as well as we needed to in the first half. We were trying to take advantage of their five switching, but we weren’t moving it afterwards. We were just trying to play one on one. When we went on that run at the start of the second half, we did a much better job of moving the basketball, getting off of it, and finding guys.

How have you felt about Cummings’ performance the last couple of games?

Capel: I think he’s played well, he just hasn’t made shots. That happens. But I think he’s distributed the basketball well, he’s gotten us into our stuff. I think he’s played great, just hasn’t made shots. It happens sometimes.

Do you think you got Federiko the ball enough on offense?

Capel: Yea, I do. I think we did it enough.