Capel previews Pitt's game with Virginia

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel met with the media on Monday as a part of the weekly ACC coaches Zoom call. Capel discussed the challenges his team will face when they take on Virginia tomorrow night in Charlottesville. Here is a complete recap of what he had to say.

What do you guys have to prepare for with the challenges Virginia brings to the table?

Capel: Well, first and foremost they are playing as well as anyone in college basketball right now. It’s amazing year in and year out what Tony (Bennett) and their staff and their program are able to do. Obviously, they are elite defensively. They are physical, they’re on a string, they communicate at a high level. They have two elite individual defenders in Beekman and Dunn. But then they are shooting the heck out of the basketball from the three-point line. Beekman really is having an outstanding season. He’s scoring it, leading our league in assists, while still being an elite defender. It’s a lot. They present a lot of challenges, but we’ll be excited about the opportunity to play them and to see where we stack up against one of the better teams in college basketball.

Jakes Groves for them seems to be much more effective for them now since he’s been playing that stretch-four. What does he add to them offensively?

Capel: Well, anytime you add guys that can shoot that adds a lot. It increases your spacing and it open things up more for Beekman with his driving or Dunn with his driving. It spreads your defense out and it makes you have to communicate more when you have a guy who can stretch the floor like he can. He’s a really good shooter, really good player, and has added another weapon to their offense.

What is clicking and what is it about your team particularly on the road that makes you guys kind of fearless there?

Capel: Well, I think we’ve grown up and we understand now a little bit better how to fight, how to be tough. Those things and I think we’ve just grown up. We’ve gotten tougher and we understand the fight and what it requires a little bit more. As far as the road, we have a really close group. We’re on the road and we’re together even more and just our guys they look at the challenge and they enjoy the challenge of playing in different environments and things like that. They’ve been good there and we’re going to need to be really, really good on Tuesday.

Six games ago you moved Federiko back into the starting lineup and you were hoping to spark. I think he’s averaging seven rebounds and two blocks over these past six games. What have you seen from him and is he starting to resemble the player he was last year?

Capel: He’s been good. It hasn’t equated to points, so to speak, but when you look at those rebounding numbers and the blocked shots and what he’s done with our defense. I think we’ve been better defensively over the last six games and I think he’s the main reason for that. His ball-screen defense, he’s protecting the basket, and he’s rebounding, offensive rebounding for us. I think he’s played really, really well over these past six games or so.

I remember you guys recruited Ryan Dunn out of high school, so you obviously saw something in him then. Now that he’s an elite defender like you said, what exactly makes him such an effective player for Virginia?

Capel: I’ll tell you what man, I don’t know in all of my time being involved in the coaching part if I’ve seen a guy that jumps off the screen defensively like he does. It’s incredible when you watch him and I haven’t seen that. I’ve seen some guys jump off offensively, athletically, and things like that, but man the things he does defensively, you could put him on anybody. He literally can guard anybody. He blocks shots, his reaction time, concentration, focus, his ability to sit down and guard guys away from the basket, like guarding guards, guarding post guys. I mean, his defensive instincts. We recruited him and I thought he was a guy with incredible upside. I thought he was talented. You saw the athleticism starting to come and he was such an unbelievable kid with a great family. Look, I’m happy for him. I’m happy he’s having success. I don’t want him to have success Tuesday night, but he’s a really good kid. But just getting to know him during that recruiting process, he was a great kid with an unbelievable family.

You have an appreciation for the history of this league. Virginia is one away from Tony Bennett joining Dean Smith and Coach K having 13 consecutive winning ACC seasons. No other coach has done that. How difficult a chore is that?

Capel: I don’t care what conference you are in, it is really, really hard, but especially in this league. When you look at the teams and programs over those 13 years that he’s had to compete against. You look at when he took over the job and where it was and what he has built that program into. They have the most consistent program in this conference, especially over the last 10 years. I didn’t know it was 13, but what he has done is truly remarkable. He’s done it in different ways. He’s had teams and groups that have been together for a while. The past couple of years he’s had guys who have transferred in and he’s had guys come in and in one year and they’ve been able to pick up their defensive and offensive stuff. They’ve been able to pick that up pretty quickly, so it’s a testament to him and his staff. The consistency of excellence that they’ve been able to have, there’s a reason why there’s only two of the greatest coaches ever, Coach K and Coach Smith and Tony is joining them and he’s proven it at his time at Washington State and at Virginia that he’s one of the premier coaches this game has seen.

Can you talk about where Jaland and Bub have grown as defenders from the start of the year to this point?

Capel: Look, those two guys, they work. They want to be really good so there’s been growth throughout their whole game. I think they understand defensively the intensity, how hard it is, so how hard you have to work, the attention to detail, and how tough you have to be in order to be a competent defender then hopefully you can become a good defender. And just the toughness and them growing up in that area and understanding how difficult this is. Look, for any freshman it’s hard because you don’t know. You can think you know, and they all think they know, and they all think they do. I probably did when I was their age, but they’ve worked hard than they’ve ever worked in their lives. They’ve had to practice harder and they’ve had to do everything at a different level. Each game, it requires more and those guys have met the bell throughout every one of them.