Check out the full rundown of everything Jeff Capel said after Pitt's loss to Duke on Tuesday night.

Capel: First of all, congrats to Duke. They’re an outstanding team. They’re very talented. They have a very good mix of older guys - what’s considered old in college basketball today - and some really, really talented freshmen, and when they shoot the ball like this, they’ll be hard to beat. In today’s game and their last game, they made a total of 26 three’s, and they’ve done it in a very efficient manner.

I thought we were really excited for the game. Our guys were really, really excited, and I thought that led early to us doing things that weren’t in character with what we’ve worked on the past few days, and even earlier in shoot-around of how we wanted to attack. Sometimes you can be too excited, too juiced up. I thought, as we got into the game, especially the second half, offensively we were better, but we never were able to get a grasp on the game defensively. And a big credit to them, because they made like every shot.

So, again, congrats to them. This is the first, I think, ACC regular season title they’ve won since 2010; I think they have a chance to win it outright on Saturday, so good luck to them.

In those opening minutes, what wasn’t in-character for you?
Capel: I wouldn’t say - in-character is probably not the right thing. That’s probably not the right thing to say, because I don’t know what the character is. But we just didn’t execute what we wanted to execute. That’s probably the better way to say it. We had something that we wanted to run at the beginning of the game, we worked on it for a couple days and then we got out there and the first time we get the basketball, we never really got into it. Defensively, we’re supposed to switch at times and early and we switched but then we left and left the guy wide open. It was like we didn’t communicate the switch. So it was just plays like that and they made us pay for it every time.

Did you see a lot of defensive breakdowns or did you feel like it was more of really talented players making shots?
Capel: I thought it was a little bit of both. I thought it was a mix of both. At times, we did have some breakdowns, and when you’re talented like that, they make you pay. But then they’re very talented and they just made some big-time individual one-on-one plays.

What were your emotions pregame?
Capel: It was weird, man. It was very strange, because as I got here tonight and we went in and did the pregame talk with our guys and I went back to the little room where I sat, I texted my wife and said, ‘For some reason I just got really emotional.’ And I didn’t really understand it. Obviously, when I came out and saw him and then seeing the video and the presentation to him, it was; it was very, very emotional. It’s weird to think that the guy that I’ve known as the Duke coach basically my whole life - it’s the only coach that I’ve known at Duke - that this would be the last time that I would be on the floor with him, as a player, coach, coaching against him. And it was a little bit surreal. So it was emotional.

What’s the significance of the fist to you?
Capel: Well, it means a lot. I’ve believed in it since I was 17 years old, and that’s what I told him when I gave it to him. I committed to Duke as a junior and I was 17, and I believe in every word of it. I use it in my home. It means a lot to me. I think they are words certainly that have helped that program - I think it’s the premier program in all of college basketball, but more importantly, I think it’s helped all of us that have worn that jersey, I think it’s helped us become better men. So that’s what it means to me.

How heavy was it?
Capel: It wasn’t as heavy as I thought it was, but it was sort of heavy.

So the message goes beyond basketball?
Capel: The message goes beyond basketball. It goes beyond basketball. And again, when I played there, I learned about it. It’s something that we talked about as players - upholding it, upholding those words, upholding the tenets of the program, playing for the guys before us, the guys that made the program what it is. There was a lot of pride.

My four years there weren’t easy. We went through some crap. I was on maybe the worst team ever at Duke. We played for a national championship my freshman year; my second year, we were 2-14 in the conference. My junior year, we were 8-8 in the league, made the Tournament and got beat in the first round. And so we had to go through a lot, and overcoming that, getting stuff said about you at 18, 19, 20 years old, stuff written about you, you know, getting booed, which I did as a senior, it was difficult, but I’m so grateful for it. I wouldn’t have been able to go through the things that I’ve had to deal with in my life once I left Duke if I didn’t have those experiences and know that I could be strong in those situations. And the other thing that it did is that it formed some incredible bonds with teammates, and I don’t think it’s ironic that if I say my best friends, they’re guys that I played with and they’re guys that I fought with and we overcame stuff.

So as a player for me, the proudest thing as a player when I wore that jersey is that we won the regular season my senior year. Even more so than the Final Four my freshman year, and I was a starter, the Final Four was in Charlotte, it was home for me, but what we were able to overcome and to do it together and to win the regular season my senior year is the thing that I was most proud about because of what we had to fight through.

He talked about how close he was with your farther. What did he mean to you not just as a coach or a mentor in the game but also personally?
Capel: One of the reasons I chose Duke was he reminded me of my dad. I grew up a Carolina fan, and I would tell my parents every day when I was little that I was going to Carolina to play for Coach Smith. And Carolina was the first ACC school to offer me - that I remember - Duke had offered shortly after, and it was after my tenth grade year, I went up there at some point, I think it was like in April, late April, for an unofficial visit.

I spent probably an hour with Coach, and it was during that conversation, that hour, when we left, I knew - that’s the guy I want to play for, because he reminded me of my dad. And how he reminded me of him - I think they both have a military background, but it was brutally honest. That’s what it was. Like, if anyone knew my dad, you never had to guess where you stood, and that’s the way Coach was. He didn’t promise anything, except for a fair opportunity and ‘I’m going to coach you hard’ and ‘I”m going to teach you’ and all of these things, and it just reminded me so much of him.

So that relationship - I mean, look, when I was 17, if you would have told me in my 40’s, my coach would be my friend, I would have thought you were out of your mind. Because it was, at times, rocky. Being his point guard is difficult. There’s a lot that’s demanded. And there were a lot of things that he said in the moment, at times, that I didn’t want to hear, that was very hard to hear, but it was necessary.

He’s been there with me through everything. Good, bad, tough times. When I think of, since I left there, all the things I’ve been through, he’s been the guy that’s - he’s been one of the people that’s been there for me. So the relationship means the world to me.

You’ve told stories before about your freshman year when he gave you all tough speeches. He said that you came up in a different era when you could talk a different way, but what have you learned from him and have you helped him in reciprocating like, ‘Hey, this is the way the game is going’?
Capel: No, I don’t think - I think the biggest thing that’s made him great throughout - and this is a man that’s been great in the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s and now in 2020: I think the thing that’s made him great is his ability and willingness to adapt. I think he’s really, really smart. I actually think he’s brilliant. And I think he’s smart at reading and seeing people and understanding that he has to change. It doesn’t mean that the standards change. But the approach with the relationship, it is different. Like, the way that he could talk to me and my teammates, you cannot do that anymore. Some of the things that he did, some of the ways he talked, the way he - you have to be careful with that stuff now. And I think the fact that he can understand that, he can see that, and he is able to change and adapt, I don’t think anyone has done - I think he’s just been observant and been willing to change.

Do you coach your team like he coached you?
Capel: You can’t. I wouldn’t have a job. I wouldn’t. I don’t think any coach now - back in the 90’s - can do, say, whatever. We’re in a very, very different time. So, to a certain extent now, you have to be really careful. You have to be really careful.

I mean, there was a coach - I’m watching Wisconsin right now and I’m reminded, like, they had somebody recording in the locker room. Players recording the coach. And took it and it got to the media. So it’s a very different time now, so you have to be - I try to have some of the same standards and things that I’ve talked about. But the approach is very different.

I don’t know what you said to your guys after the game, but after a difficult loss like this with the season winding down, what do you try to appeal to - pride, competitiveness?
Capel: After a game, I don’t say much, because I don’t want to say anything with emotion. I learned that when I was a younger coach. After a game I would give these long talks and I was emotional because you’re emotional, you’re in competition. There were times when I would get on them and I would go back and watch the tape and, gosh, we didn’t play that bad. Or I would praise them and I would back and, like, we didn’t play well. So after a game, I’m very brief. When we get back together, that’s when we’ll talk about it. That’s when we’ll go through it. When I’ve had a chance to watch it from a non-emotional state - I’ll get emotional when I watch it, I’ll get angry, whatever, but I’m not speaking out of just pure emotion.

From what you saw tonight, do you think that’s a team that deserves a number-one seed in the NCAA Tournament?
Capel: You have to earn a number-one seed. I think if they can finish out the regular season, if they can go to the ACC Tournament and make a run, then yeah, I think they are. I think they’re as good as anyone. I think they’re as good as anyone I’ve seen. I haven’t seen everyone, but they’re as talented and they’re as good as anyone that I’ve seen. And if they shoot the basketball like they’ve done the last two games, then they can be very difficult to beat. I don’t think - I know, for me, this is my first time seeing them live, you don’t realize how big they are. And when they go to ‘small ball’ - small ball with Paolo at the five at 6’10” 255. But then they have the ability to switch everything and they can take you out of stuff and things like that. They have a great leader in Wendell Moore, who’s an older guy in the program and is all about winning. And then a great mixture of really talented freshmen that understand - one of the things that I was really impressed with Paolo and Keels, they made unbelievable plays, unbelievable shots, and never one time did they celebrate. It was business-like, like this is what I do, let me get back and play defense. That was really impressive, especially for young guys.

You talked about their size and talent; how much does that factor into the slower start when they built the big lead? It’s one thing to scout them and watch them on film, but when you’re actually out there having to face that, how different is it and how much does that factor in?
Capel: They’re really good, they’re really talented. I mean, they’re really good. All of that factors into it. If you play someone that’s really good, then you can get off to a slow start if you’re not making shots or if you’re turning the basketball over. They’re really good, they’re very talented and they seem to be on a mission together. Like, it doesn’t seem like any individual stuff. They’re all on a mission.

Coach always talks about moments and having moments. I think they understand this is a moment, this year is a moment for them, and they want to capitalize and send the guy off with something special.

What did you see from John in how the game progressed?
Capel: It was interesting, because early in the game, I felt like he wasn’t aggressive. It was almost like he was anticipating a double, and one of the things we told him at halftime was, ‘They’re not doubling you; just go. Go right through them. Go. Don’t hesitate.’ And I thought he did a much better job of that in the second half, of being aggressive and not waiting, just making quick moves. So I was really pleased with that.