Capel on the loss at Duke, the state of the ACC and more

Jeff Capel met the media after Pitt's loss at Duke on Wednesday night. Here's the full rundown of everything he said.

Capel: First and foremost, I want to congratulate Duke. They were outstanding tonight. I thought they played really, really hard and obviously they dominated the glass. That really was the difference in the game. It’s very rarely that you see when a team shoots 36% and 22% from the three but they win, and they did that because of how they dominated in the second half. I thought they played really, really hard. Obviously Filipowski is an outstanding player and he had a monster night tonight. We couldn’t keep them off the glass. That was an area that we were concerned about coming into this game. We understood that they’ve been the best offensive rebounding team in this league in conference play, and really one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country. And we didn’t do a good job. All of the 50/50 balls in the second half - really, they offensive-rebounded the whole game, but all of that stuff in the second half - and we went through a long stretch where we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. So congrats to them. It’s something we’ll learn from. We’ll get better. And we look forward to the next one.

How do address your team’s struggles in the front court? Obviously you guys are thin and young there; how do you get better with what you have available?
Capel: We have to work harder. Simple.

What was the difference in your ability to score in the second half versus the first half? What was Duke doing differently?
Capel: They switched. They switched everything and then they really did a great job of using their size and length to contest shots. Some of the shots that we were making in the first half and the start of the second half, we just missed them. We got some good looks. I thought we got a little bit stagnant, really trying to attack a matchup that we did in the first half. But their length - I mean, they’re big. You read about it and you look at the programs and things like that, but when you get out there and you see the size of Whitehead, Mitchell, Filipowski, when Lively comes in, those guys can cover a lot of ground and clean up a lot of stuff.

Jamarius was the only guy on your team with multiple assists today; what did Duke do so well to take away guys from Nelly from moving the basketball efficiently?
Capel: They switched every ball screen in the second half, they were in gaps and they used their length to really contest shots and they moved well and kept us out of the paint.

You got so many looks out of mismatches in the first half. How much of that was the adjustments you said Duke made in the second half and how much of it was you guys getting away from it?
Capel: No, we still went to it. They just made an adjustment and they switched everything. They started switching everything. In the first half, we were able to get some stuff, maybe confuse them a little bit with some of our rolls, putting pressure on the rim. We were able to skip it and make some multi-drive and passes and things like that. In the second half, they just switched, they were in the gaps and they used their lengths to really bother our shots. And then some of the shots we made in the first half, we just didn’t make in the second half. But again, give them credit, because their length, it’s tough shooting over, you know, seven feet, seven feet, guys that are long and can cover a lot of ground.

You guys have seen a lot of talented big men this year. Where did Filipowski’s efforts tonight rank as far as how other guys have attacked you guys?
Capel: Well, I don’t think he’s a big guy. I think he’s a tall guy but I don’t think he’s a post player. I think he’s just a really good basketball player, and they do a great job of moving him around to different spots. He posts at times, he drove us, obviously he was a monster on the glass. I mean, he’s very, very talented. Very, very talented. I knew him. I saw him a lot in high school, but he’s gotten so much better since he’s been here, and tonight, he was the best player on the floor.

When it was at the end of the first half and then you were up 12 in the second half, did you get the sense that you were maybe taking the building out of it a little bit?
Capel: Well, I know this building’s never out of it. You know, you anticipate a run is coming at some point and they made a run, the crowd - I mean, the crowd was in it all game. Terrific crowd. But when they got going, I think those guys really fed off of it, too. It gave them an extra boost to maybe be a step quicker to get that 50/50 ball. But I also think they just kind of knew, ‘We can dominate the glass’ and they just kept - just relentless. I mean, that was their best offense, just to get it on the remand then to go get it.

You gave Nate eight minutes in the first half and just one in the second half. What changed within the game where he didn’t see the floor as much?
Capel: I thought Nate did a terrific job. I thought he did a terrific job. He made a strong drive in the first half for a finish. He made a drive with a great pass to Guillermo. I just thought he did a really good job all night long for us. In the second half, we went with guys who have played well for us all year, and unfortunately we just didn’t do a great job in the second half.

More of a big-picture question about the league: does it feel like it’s recalibrated - there’s no K, Roy is gone, the top of the league is you, Clemson, Miami, and people are figuring things out here at Duke and Carolina. In the thick of it in January, how do you see the league overall?
Capel: I think our league is really good. I think our league is the most disrespected good league in the country, and I hate when, you know, especially people that are doing our games talk like it’s not good. We heard that all last year and all we had was two teams in the Final Four, another team in the Elite Eight. I think our league is really good. It may not be as top-heavy as it was when I first took the Pitt job and you had three number-one seeds, overall number-one seeds in the Tournament, but it’s a really, really good league, and I wish people would really respect it across the country like we do as coaches. It’s really talented players, really good coaches, great home court environments, great passionate fan bases, and we go out and we win. And especially when we get to the Tournament. We’ve proven that year-in and year-out.

So I don’t think we’re recalibrating. It’s different faces. Obviously you don’t have the quote-unquote legends with Coach and with Coach Williams. But you have really good coaches that have been in this league and have been in coaching for awhile, like Coach Larranaga and Leonard Hamilton and obviously Tony is a championship coach. So we have really good coaches, really good players and I think it’s a very good league.