What did Jeff Capel think of Pitt’s loss to Wake Forest on Saturday? Here’s the full rundown of what he said.

Capel: First and foremost, congrats to Danny and Wake Forest. I thought they showed toughness today, I thought they stayed together after our good start and they made plays down the stretch, whether it was making free throws, stepping up and making big corner three’s, big-time offensive rebound put-back dunk by Mucius - so congrats to them.

Very tough loss for us. Very disappointing loss for us. I thought we got off to a good start. I thought we rebounded well. I thought from the, I think it was about the 10-minute mark of the first half, I thought we became incredibly stagnant offensively, and we went from plus-16 to just plus-three. So I thought the way we finished the half gave them momentum and even more confidence going into the second half. Then I thought the second half, it was just, you know, we played tentative against the zone and it stood us up. We were a little bit unsure. We didn’t have the movement that’s required to really attack the zone. We practiced against it and worked and thought we were prepared, but they just made plays.

You know, down the stretch, disappointing our last few possessions. We didn’t get the shots that we really wanted, and that’s on all of us. We have to do a better job in those situations knowing where we want to get the shots from and making sure we execute to do that. We can’t panic. But again, congrats to them. They made plays and tough loss for us.

Where does the stagnancy that you talked about -
Capel: Well, I thought some of it in the first half came - we were in foul trouble and Xavier went out and we had to go with Trey at the point, and I thought that’s where it came from a little bit. And then Trey picked up his second, so we were trying to rotate those two guys to close the half so we don’t have them pick up a third. But I thought when Xavier went out and we switched and things like that, I thought that’s where it became stagnant during that time.

You talked about the shots that you took down the stretch, especially at the end there; was the emphasis there the intent to get it to Murphy?
Capel: It was to get a good shot. You know, it was to get a good shot. Out of one of the timeouts, we did have something drawn up for Murphy, but there were other options, too, and we just - I thought we panicked. I thought we panicked and in some ways I thought, you know, again, it comes from a good place at times. Like, ‘I have to make a play, I have to make a play.’ And it can never be that; it has to be, ‘We have to do it and we have to do it together.’ That’s where we have to grow up. We have to understand that and we have to realize that and we have to be able to do that in real time.

Was the plan there coming out of the timeout to try to go 2-for-1 there? And did they just not give you something early? Or at that point were you just looking to get a good shot?
Capel: Out of the timeout, it wasn’t to go 2-for-1. We were looking for a good shot. We were looking for a good shot. I think we were down one at that time, and we were just looking for a good shot. We had something drawn up and I thought we shot it a little bit quickly in the shot clock.

Johnson had the shot where he kind of it threw it up from the right elbow. You had a timeout remaining; is that what you were upset about with him?
Capel: It wasn’t a good shot. That’s what I was upset about. It wasn’t a good shot. I mean, in that situation, I thought there was a dead situation - when I say dead, he picked up his dribble, so it’s a situation like that. In hindsight, yeah, we should have called a timeout. I’m not as confident how we would have been coming out of a timeout. Like, we haven’t been good coming out of timeouts. So in that situation, we thought we had something in transition. We also didn’t - I didn’t want Wake to set their defense up. But when we’re in that situation like that, that is a time where we could have taken a timeout. Also, you can make a pass, too. You know, we just get it - we can’t panic in that situation and just throw something up or try to throw something up and flop like we’re getting fouled.

You have to be strong. You have to be strong throughout a game, and that’s not just physically strong; you have to be mentally sharp, and we have to continue to grow in that area. We’ve been at times this year; we were not this afternoon.

How tough is it then for you when opposing teams know and Danny said part of their game plan was to stop those two, Trey and X, and you know that their strength is driving to the basket and you know that these teams are going to try to collapse on them and double them and get some help defense. How tough has that been to run an offense when that’s what teams are obviously trying to take away and that’s their strength?
Capel: It’s been a challenge. But that’s where we have to trust everybody, and you have to make the proper plays. You can’t try to force and just think, ‘Well, I’m going to do’ - no, we have to do. We have to do. Coming into this game, Brandon Childress had taken probably about 60 more shots than anyone on their team, the next guy. In some cases, 80. In some cases, 100 more shots. And he took four tonight. And was happy with that. He didn’t try to force.

Now, he was our game plan. That’s their leading scorer, he leads them in rebounding, he leads them in steals, so one of the things in our game plan was to really have our antenna up against him, and he did a great job of letting the game come to him and trusting other guys to make plays. That’s why Massoud was able to step up and make plays, White hit a big three in the corner, and all of that was off of Childress’ penetration. Now you’re talking about a senior, a guy that’s been through wars, a guy that’s been through and understands - maybe he doesn’t make those same plays, maybe he tries to force them as a sophomore, as a freshman.

But when you’ve been through it and you have a better understanding - again, with my guys, I don’t think it comes from a bad place. Like, I want them to want to be able to make plays. But we have to make the right plays all the time, and that’s a necessary requirement from here on out, because we don’t play any of the - and this is no disrespect to the Monmouths or the Canisius’s or the Arkansas Pine Bluffs, but this league’s a lot different than that. Today showed that.

In a game like that one, how noticeable was Au’Diese’s absence?
Capel: It was big-time. We knew it. I knew it coming in that it was going to be a big thing for us, because of the rotation, you know, with how we like to play. We haven’t played two bigs much this year. I think we did it a little bit against Kansas State out of necessity because of the foul trouble. And it was a little bit easier there because they played two bigs. Kansas State did. So with us, today we had to - I knew that’s something that could happen if we got into foul trouble, and we had two of our better players pick up two fouls, I think, before the under-8 timeout, right around 10 minutes of the first half. So we had to go with that a little bit, and because of that, we had to play zone. I thought our man was pretty good early, but we had to play zone because of matchups. I didn’t think that we could put any of our bigs on their quote-unquote ‘four man’ who’s really a guard.

So it was a big thing for us. Even some of the things we do offensively, when we have two bigs in, that takes away some of the stuff that we like to attempt to do. So it was a big thing for us. Don’t know when he’s going to be back. We have to get adjusted to it. Hopefully it’s soon, but not really sure when he’s going to be back for us.

Are those skills that allow a player to make big shots down the stretch, make the right choices, are those learned traits or are they innate in certain players?
Capel: I think it depends on the player. I think it depends on the player. Somebody can get lucky and throw something up and it goes in; that’s a big shot, but it’s just lucky. Or you can have a guy that that’s what they do. I think the thing is that you can’t be afraid to take the shot, but it has to be a good shot. The really good players, they’re able to get a good shot. Now, you’re talking about some of the better guys that play in this world, but I think it depends on the player and I think it depends on your definition of a big shot.

What did you think of Eric’s response, coming off maybe his worst game of the year?
Capel: I thought he did some good things for us. I certainly thought his energy was good for us. He rebounded the basketball better; that’s something we challenged him to get back to doing. So again, I thought he did some good things for us, but look: we didn’t do good things. That’s the bottom line. For me, it’s never about an individual. It’s ‘we.’ It’s ‘us.’ It’s ‘our.’ We didn’t do what was required for us to win a basketball game today, and that’s incredibly disappointing.

What do you think can be learned by your guys from a loss like this?
Capel: You have to play 40 minutes. There are a lot of things that are required to be good, and we have to do them all of the time. We can’t do them for a 10-minute period and think we can take a break, and think that we can just turn it back on again. We have to do them. We have to get back to defending at a high level. This is two games in a row where we haven’t done that. I thought we rebounded the ball better today, but it’s two games in a row where our defense hasn’t been what it was before we took a break. So we have to get back to doing that and to understanding the required discipline and focus it takes to defend. You can’t take a play off. You can’t be out of a stance. You can’t not talk. You can’t not call a switch. You can’t just assume that this guy’s going to know that I’m going to switch. Those are the things that we’ve done at a pretty high level that there has been a little bit of slippage with. We have to get back to that and understanding what’s required to be really good.

It seemed like you had Murphy really going in the first half and then they were able to take him away a little better in the second half. What did you think was the difference there?
Capel: I thought that there was more attention on him in the second half. I thought we missed him a few times on some of the plays, some of the movements offensively, I thought we missed him. But I thought Wake had their antenna up a little bit more in the second half to get to him a little bit quicker.