Capel on the loss, Williamson and how his team can improve

Jeff Capel met the media after Pitt lost to Duke on Tuesday night, and here’s a full rundown of everything he said.

Capel: Well, congratulations to Duke. They’re an outstanding team. They have two really, really, really good players and other good players around them, but they have two guys that are very, very different. That’s why I think it’s the premier program in the country. Obviously, they’re well-coached. They play hard. They’re a really good team. I thought we got off to a good start; obviously it was an amazing environment in there and I thought we fed off it early. And then we went through a stretch where we couldn’t score. Their zone bothered us, the size of it, the length of it, how they anticipate it and it really broke our rhythm offensively. In order to beat a team like Duke, you have to score, and we went through a long stretch there where we couldn’t score and we dug ourselves a hole.

I like that we kept fighting, but again, it wasn’t enough today. So hopefully we can learn some things from it and move on to the next play.

Three days after the Syracuse game and some earlier struggles this year, this was another team that used a zone against you guys. What do you feel like you guys can do against that?
Capel: We have to learn how to attack it better. We have to put our guys in positions to attack it better. We have to be able to make some outside shots but we have to have the movement where we get the right shots. It’s hard for us; we can’t simulate 6’7”, 6’7”, 6’7”, 6’8” and 6’11” in practice, and that’s what that zone was for a good part. Syracuse wasn’t as big, but it’s big.

And I don’t think it was just that. Look, they’re better than us. I mean, they’re more talented than us. So I think that’s what it was. I don’t think it was just the zone; I think it was their talent and how good they are that won. I don’t think it’s like zone is kryptonite for us. You know, if we rebound the ball better, we’re able to beat the zone down the court. Instead, we gave up 16 offensive rebounds. That’s a way we can beat the zone better: we have to do a better job there. If we don’t turn the ball over as much, then we can maybe attack the zone a little bit better. So I don’t think it was just that, although I do know that that did play a big factor in breaking our rhythm offensively.

That stretch when you couldn’t score kind of coincided with Terrell coming out of the game. How did you feel that that hurt you, him getting into foul trouble?
Capel: I think it hurt us, but I think they hurt us. That’s the bottom line. Zion’s a very difficult guy to defend. No one has done it yet. I think this, six games in the league and he’s averaging 25, so no one has done it yet. RJ Barrett’s a very difficult guy to defend, especially with the freedom that they have. So I think, certainly Terrell not being in there did hurt us; it did. But I think their talent hurt us more than anything.

Before the game you talked about you wanted this to be a measuring stick for the program. After the game, where do you think you guys are?
Capel: Yeah, I mean, we have a long way to go. I knew that before. I knew that yesterday. I knew it during. I mean, we have a long way. It was - one of the great things about tonight was seeing the Pete like that. That was really cool. So I think that’s a big step in the direction for our program. For our team, we have a long way to go. As a program, we have a long way to go. But like I said, I think we’re taking the necessary steps in order to get better and to improve, and we want to try to do that every day. We know that there are going to be teams that we play against from here on out that will be more talented than us. They’ll be bigger, they’ll have more experience and all of those things; that doesn’t mean that we can’t win, but we have to really, really minimize our mistakes and do the little things at a very high level and not get tired of it, not get bored with the little things, to understand for every second how important they are. So, a block-out; but then it’s not just a block-out. It’s a block-out and pursue the rebound, to actually jump for it instead of standing and looking, and then all of a sudden, they go up a little bit and they get the board. It’s little things like that that we have to continue to get better at. We’re trying to throw no-look passes against the zone, against length; those are things that we can correct, those are things that we can control, and we have to do that. When we do that, we put ourselves in positions where we have a chance.

Now, against the Dukes or the super-elites, that’s going to be very, very hard right now. But we’re taking the steps to get there.

When you go against teams like Duke or Carolina, the super-elites, you see the talent that you just can’t match with, how much does that give you motivation to recruit those type of players and bring them here and even the field as much as possible?
Capel: Well, I don’t need that for motivation. I’m motivated to do that. I want to get outstanding players that want to be a part of what we want to do and what we’re building and be a part of this university and be a part of this community and be a part of this program. You know, Pitt has had really good players, so I don’t need to see Duke or Carolina to know that. I knew it when I took it. I’ve been fortunate in my head-coaching career before where I’ve had outstanding players. At VCU, players of the year, rookies of the year, at Oklahoma, national player of the year, rookie of the year and things like that, so I’ve had that and I don’t have any doubt that we’ll be able to attract that type of talent here.

Was there any emotion factoring in tonight? Anything different
Capel: Yeah, it was different. It’s my alma mater. It’s a place that I love. It’s people that I love on that bench. It’s a coach that means the world to me. It’s a man that means the world to me. So that was very weird, walking out of that tunnel and watching that team warm up that I wore the jersey and all of those kids, I know them, for that Duke team. Once you tip it up, it’s competition, but it was surreal a little bit.

You said it was all business during play, but afterward in the handshake line, did you and Mike share anything? What was that exchange like?
Capel: It was just, you know, good luck and we did share some private stuff that will stay private, just between he and I. But it was great to see him. It was great to see him. I’ve said over and over, I miss him. I miss the daily interactions and talks and the constant communication about basketball and life and leadership and all of those different things.

You said nobody has been able to slow down RJ or Zion in conference; what was your approach? What did you try to do?
Capel: I think I said yesterday, everyone has a game plan until you get hit. That’s the Mike Tyson quote. We tried to gap up, we tried to take up space, we tried to play the percentages on some other guys. I actually thought we - it’s crazy, I thought we did a decent job on RJ. I know he had 26 points, but it wasn’t, I don’t think - it was 10-for-24, you can roll the dice there. He had a couple big three’s there in the second half.

Zion, he’s…I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like it in my time of coaching. I looked up at one point in the first half and he had 17. My assistants told me he hadn’t missed a shot. It reminded me, my first year at Oklahoma, the first time we played Texas, I looked up at the thing to see the score, I looked up, it was 10 minutes to go in the first half and Durant had 20. I turned to my staff, you know, there’s nothing we can do about this. It’s a little bit the same way with Zion. There’s - especially us, we don’t have the size. Now if you have more size and a little bit older and maybe a different type of athlete, then maybe - maybe - but no one has done it yet. The only - he probably would be averaging more if he didn’t get the concussion or whatever it was, the eye scrape against Florida State. So he’s very unique. Very, very unique.

Au’Diese finished 2-of-13; he was tasked with guarding Zion for parts of the night. How much did that tall and taxing task seem to impact him on the offensive end?
Capel: I don’t think it did. I don’t think it impacted him. I thought their defense impacted him. I thought their zone getting to spots, he was the guy in the middle of the zone a lot for us, and shots that you think you have or drives, you know, their size can affect you. I don’t think it had anything to do with guarding - I’m not comparing other guys to Zion, but Au’Diese has guarded some really good players in this league and he’s done a pretty good job. Obviously we didn’t do a good job with Zion today, but like I said, I don’t think anyone has and I’m not sure anyone will.

What were the circumstances around the technical?
Capel: I was arguing with a ref. You saw it. I was arguing with a ref. I deserved it.

Anything in particular that was bothering you at that point?
Capel: I’m not going to say. I don’t want to get fined or whatever they do in the league. It was the right call. I deserved a tech.

You had six assists on 22 makes and 3-of-15 from three. Is that one of those things where, if you make some shots, the assists don’t look so bad, or was there more that you needed to do to move the ball?
Capel: Yeah, we needed to move the ball. We needed to do a better job of moving the ball. And we didn’t do a good job of that tonight.

Jared talked about taking a punch but not punching back, maybe stop playing as hard. Did you notice spots in the game where that intensity wasn’t there?
Capel: Yes, I did. When we weren’t making shots and we weren’t scoring, I thought we allowed that to affect everything.

When you throw a party like this, how do you get Jay-Z to come and what do you do for an encore?
Capel: I don’t know. I don’t know what you do for an encore. His people reached out to me a few weeks ago, actually, about him wanting to come, about them wanting to come, people from Roc Nation. Our athletic department and our ticketing people did an amazing job of accommodating that. And obviously it’s great to have the greatest rapper ever in your arena, one of the world’s greatest entertainers. So it was pretty cool.

Did he visit the locker room?
Capel: No.