Capel on the loss, the struggles, officiating and more
Jeff Capel talked about his team’s struggles, officiating, the freshman wall and more after Pitt’s loss to Syracuse Saturday night. Here’s a full rundown of what he said.
Capel: Congrats to Syracuse. They’re a good team. And they’ve gotten better. They’re an experienced team. They have veteran guys that have been in hostile environments and have been in big moments, and they stepped up and made some big-time shots in the second half. I thought our defense in the second half was much better than it was in the first half. They’re a difficult team to play against and to prepare for, because you can’t simulate the zone.
I thought in the first half we had some good looks and we missed them, some wide-open three’s that we didn’t make, and I thought our offense hurt our defense a little bit. Again, I thought we played better in the second half but it’s not good enough. So congrats to them.
Did you feel like there were times in the first half, maybe after a few of those shots didn’t fall, that you got a little bit hesitant in wanting to shoot, especially from outside?
Capel: Yes.
What do you do with a young team, how do you get them back into that mindset that you want them to shoot when they have an open look?
Capel: Tell them to shoot. They have to be ready to shoot. We have confidence. There are shots.
What did you try to do differently today offensively against their zone?
Capel: We tried to move it, move the ball a little bit more, really tried to hit the middle of it, the short corner. Again, I thought we got good looks, especially in the first half. I do think we became hesitant after we missed some. And the thing about them, you have to be ready to shoot, because that window is not there that long because of their length and their athleticism and their ability to close out.
What was the explanation that you got on Trey McGowens’ offensive foul?
Capel: Didn’t get one. Don’t understand it. Didn’t understand it. Still don’t. Not sure I’ve seen that called in college. Ever. So, it’s…you know, one of the interesting stats to me is that our first four games in conference, our first four games in conference, Xavier Johnson took 33 free throws, Trey McGowens took 49. In the four games prior to today, Xavier has taken 14 and Trey has taken four. Now, we’re still driving, we’re still attacking the basket, and the last four teams prior to today - and today’s team was really good, but the previous four, you know, at ‘Cuse, Duke, at Louisville and at Clemson, they were good, but man, I don’t think they’ve mastered defense or mastered verticality.
And so, it’s - that’s just an interesting thing to me, and that’s been a big part of our offense. It was good to see us get to the line tonight. It was good to see Xavier take 12 free throws. We took 22. That was good to see. But I did not get an explanation on the call. And I’m not sure anyone did.
What’s your theory on that?
Capel: I don’t know. I don’t have one. I’m not allowed to speak publicly about a theory. So I’m not going to.
Can you follow up and call the league office?
Capel: I have.
You will?
Capel: I have. I have. So…
You accomplished some good things in the early start of the conference season, got a couple firsts out of the way; is the next step now counterpunching after you’ve taken a few here in the last four or five games?
Capel: No, the next step is for us to get better. Every day is attempt to get better every day. Some of these losses that we’ve had, maybe we’ve gotten better. It was going to be very, very difficult for us to beat Duke. It was going to be very difficult for us to win at Syracuse. Louisville is one of the better teams in the country right now.
Look, we’re not as talented as a lot of the teams we’re playing against. And I don’t mean that as a negative against my guys. I think one of the better teams in this league the past few years has not been the most talented team, and that’s Virginia. I think they’re really good; nationally, I think they’re one of the best teams in the country, year in and year out, under Tony Bennett. But if you look at just sheer talent, they don’t have that. They don’t have elite-level talent like Duke, like North Carolina, they don’t have a team stacked with McDonald’s All-Americans.
What he did was that he came in there and he built the culture, and it took some time, but he built a culture. That’s what we’re trying to do. So it may not equate into wins and we’re not judging ourselves on that. Now, I know that we want to win and we have to win and all of those things and it’s really, really important. But I do think we are continuing to get better.
We’re going through a lot. We’ve had to rely a lot on freshmen, and freshmen hit a wall. We have regular freshmen, and they’re really good, but they’re not Zion, they’re not RJ, they’re not Bagley or Carter or Tatum or those guys. They’re not super-human. So when they hit a wall, they hit a wall. And we’re going through that and we have to help them get through it. We are going to help them get through it. And we’re going to continue to work to get better.
How much is adversity the best teacher for you, for these guys to go through this and see some of the blemishes and is it easier to point them out when you’ve lost as opposed to when you win?
Capel: No. We point them out anytime. Adversity is something that you have to go through, especially when you’re building, when you’re starting from the ground up. You go through tough times and you have to stay together, you have to stay connected and you have to try to stay positive; all three of them are difficult and the last one is probably even more difficult but you have to do it and you have to continue to work. It’s not going to happen just because someone’s going to lay down. We have to make it happen and we have to continue to teach and point out the things that we need to improve on and we need to work diligently every day to improve on those things.
How hard is it to get those freshmen developed when there are other external factors that you feel are holding you back like getting to the line more?
Capel: I don’t think it’s external factors. I don’t think that’s the reason why we’re losing. I don’t think that. I’m just saying, it’s just odd. You know, we got to the line a lot against North Carolina; we didn’t win. At N.C. State, we didn’t win. So I don’t think that’s it. It’s a lot of factors with us. It’s a lot of factors and we have to play better. We have to play better for 40 minutes. It can’t be 20. In the second half, we defended our butts off; in the first half, we didn’t. It’s difficult to win against a good team - against anyone in this league, because all the teams are pretty good - but it’s difficult to win when you don’t do that. We have to do that. I’ve said from the very beginning, we have to do the little things really, really well and we have to continue to get better at that.
Have you received a response from the league office?
Capel: No.
What do you see in terms of - you mentioned some of the growth and things you’re seeing, regardless of win or lose - what are some things you’ve seen since the last time you played Syracuse in terms of growth from your team and your players?
Capel: I think, with the exception of the first half against Clemson and probably the first half today, defensively, we’ve continued to be pretty good. I’ve seen Terrell Brown - it was great to see him respond the way he did today. Terrell did not play well our last two games and he didn’t practice Wednesday and Thursday because of an illness, because of strep throat. So he had one day of preparation and he came out, I thought he had really good energy, I thought he did some good things. I thought Malik Ellison rebounded the ball well and had one of his best games in awhile. It was good to see Xavier get to the line again and have a positive assist-to-turnover; that’s something that, the last four games prior to this one, that he had struggled with, his valuing the basketball.
So those are some of the things that I’ve seen that are positive. At times, we’ve played really good offensively; we just have to be able to put that together for 40 minutes.
If you did hit the freshman wall when you were playing, what did you do to crash through it?
Capel: I was very fortunate that I had great seniors. I had Grant Hill. I had Tony Lang. So I wasn’t relied on as much as these guys. I wasn’t. If I hit a wall, you still had the best player in the country who was a senior that had won two national championships. You had another guy, Antonio Lang, that was a senior, that was a starter on two national championship teams. So there was a reference point on how to get through it. We don’t have that. That’s the reality. And it’s not a knock. It’s just the reality. We don’t have that. Like, this thing was at ground zero as we’re starting and we’re trying to build and I think all of our guys have gotten better. I think all of our guys - I don’t think it’s just the freshmen who hit the wall; I think all of our guys have hit the wall. And it happens. This time of year is the grind. When you get to late January and you get into February, it’s the grind. Everyone’s banged up, everyone’s a little, you know, knick-knack injuries and things like that. And everyone’s a little bit tired. You have to be resilient, you have to be mentally tough, you have to be physically tough and you have to fight through. If you can be fortunate where you can be part of a group that’s really together, then you fight through it together and you figure out a way to win. I think we have a group that’s together, we have a group that’s connected; we just have to continue to chip away and figure out a way to do it.
Did you want to ease Au’Diese back in?
Capel: He had one day of practice. Yesterday. So his wind is not where it needs to be.
Trey has been held to single digits four out of the last five games. Is there something that he needs to do to get back to his game?
Capel: He needs to play better. Period. And he will.
What made Brissett such a tough matchup with his scoring and his rebounding?
Capel: He’s really good. I think he’s - you know, for me, from afar, I’ve been a fan of his since he was a freshman last year, a big fan of his as a player. He’s got really good size, very athletic, he can score, he can do it from the three, midrange, he can get to the rim, he’s gotten stronger during his time. And then for us, with his size, he’s a tough match. He’s that 6’8” guy, a hybrid forward that can play away from the basket and can post and can drive and can do different things with his length and athleticism and strength, you know, he’s on the boards. And we don’t have anyone like that. We have bigs - two - and then we have all guards. So we don’t have a guy like that. That’s a tough matchup for us.