Jeff Capel talked about what went wrong in Pitt's 81-56 loss to West Virginia at the Petersen Events Center Friday night. Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Capel: First of all, congrats to West Virginia. They played a tremendous game. They were able - which is what they want to do - they are really good in chaos and they create chaos with their defense. We turned it over, we didn’t display the poise that’s necessary to have a chance to win against a team like that with the way they defend. I thought it would take us a little bit to get settled into the game, which it did early; then I thought we started making some plays, stronger with the basketball, and when we did that, we got a little bit of a lead. I thought they made it even more chaotic, and we didn’t handle it well. We had some foul trouble, we had lineups that we had never practiced with, and again, they caused that with the relentless pressure that they put on you. So again, they were terrific, tough for us, disappointing but we’ll use it, we’ll learn from it, we’ll get better and we’re looking to learn from it.

Greg, you scored 12 points in the first five minutes and none for the rest of the game; what changed?
Elliott: I would probably say West Virginia did a good job of locating me in transition and in our half-court sets. There weren’t too many times I was left as open as I was to start the game. So I guess that’s what it is.

When Nelly and Jamarius both get in foul trouble, they’re both your facilitators, what were you guys talking about trying to do to keep the offense flowing?
Elliott: Run whatever Coach called and just stay together. Like he said, we had to try to remain poised and that was something that we preached going into this game, so no matter who was out there at the point guard position, we just had to be poised and run whatever was called.

Was that just a cramp when you went down?
Elliott: Yeah, I just caught cramps.

What was the challenge defensively tonight? It seemed like West Virginia was able to get out in transition pretty easy.
Elliott: That came from, I would say, our bad shots and turnovers. That’s one thing we talked about that helped them get into transition passing. So I would say those two things. When they sped us up, we kept going fast, so they would get a turnover and get a play in transition. And all of our shots felt like they were all long misses. Every time they got it, it was a transition opportunity and they used it to their advantage.

It seemed like there was some miscommunications on defense or at least a misunderstanding when to go out, especially when you guys switched to the zone. What were some of the things that you noticed that you guys were like, ‘We need to stop this’?
Elliott: We weren’t talking. We didn’t talk for 40 minutes, honestly. That was the one thing that our team had done a great job of: talking offensively and defensively, and today, we did not do that at all. You see the result.

You’ve been through big wins and big losses at Marquette. What are you going to try to learn from this? What are you going to try to teach your teammates after this game?
Elliott: That we can’t come into a game if we’re not together thinking we’re going to win. It starts with us being together. If you’re not right within, then you won’t be right at all. So that’s what I would say. If we start off being right together and we are together, nobody will beat us.

Why do you think there was no talk going on?
Elliott: Honestly, I’m going to say, we got into ourselves. Once the game got a little tougher, we hit adversity. It was our first time hitting adversity as a team, and I feel like we just - it’s a new team, so everybody felt like they could do it on their own, and you have multiple plays where you can tell we looked like we were trying to do it on our own. West Virginia plays team defense; it might look like one person is pressing you, but their whole team is in on you, so I feel like that’s what it was.

What did Nate give you tonight? This was one of the better games of his career so far.
Elliott: He gave us a huge spark. It was a time we really needed it. He came in off the bench ready to play, and that was huge for us because he gave us a spark off the bench that we really needed tonight.

I know the result wasn’t what you wanted, but what did you make of the atmosphere, especially at the beginning of this game?
Elliott: The atmosphere was crazy. It was a great crowd to play in front of. I just wish, you know, it wasn’t all for not. That result is not representative of our team and I don’t want the Oakland Zoo to feel like they didn’t show up and do their thing tonight, because they definitely did and we’re going to make up for that.

This was something Jeff had talked about before, just responding when you guys missed shots and aren’t able to generate offense naturally, how do you guys have to fight through to make sure that those moments that led to some of their runs don’t happen?
Elliott: It’s going to start with film, honestly. Once you see it on film, then you’ll really understand it. You can say something and learn a lesson, but it’s going to be a hard lesson that we’re getting ready to learn when you watch film. So I feel like once we see our mistakes, you won’t have any choice but to learn from it.

It’s not a perfect stat, but plus-minus, if you look at it, Nelly Cummings played 22 minutes and was zero and you lost the game - basically in the other 18 minutes, you were minus-25 without him. Does that speak volumes about how important he is to you guys and what you’re doing?
Capel: Yeah, he is. He is. He’s really important for us. We had lineups out there that we had not practiced with, guys in different positions, especially in the first half with the foul trouble that we had. So it did hurt us not having Nelly out there.

What changed defensively when Fede and Blake got in foul trouble?
Capel: Yeah, it wasn’t just Fede and Blake. It was just us, together; we weren’t connected defensively like we had been and we weren’t talking. They just saw open lanes to get to the basket. They drove us. Our individual one-on-one defense was not what it needs to be. So again, we’ll learn from it, we’ll get better and we’ll be better next time we play.

Is this a real example of why you really need the big guy inside?
Capel: I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I mean, we need John but this game is not just an example of that. John is, I think, one of the better players in our league, so we definitely do need him. But again, that had nothing to do with tonight’s outcome.

The fouls obviously changed the way you have to coach and play defense.
Capel: Yeah, it changed everything. We tried to go to a zone. We haven’t worked on zone as much, just trying to get our man-to-man right and better. But again, we were in so much foul trouble and with the way the game was being called, I didn’t want to put guys in. We ran the risk. Nelly had three at halftime. I contemplated, ‘Do I start him the second half?’ I did. He picked up four right away, so it was chaotic and we didn’t handle it well.

Their bench outscored you guys 42-10; what can you say about the depth that West Virginia was throwing at you?
Capel: They have a lot of good players. They do. They have good players, guys that are older. They went to the transfer portal as well and got some guys. Tousssaint had an outstanding game. I think Tre Mitchell’s their most talented player. Those two guys, the kid Wague, he was terrific. So look, they have good players, they played really well.

What did you make of the atmosphere at the beginning of the game? That’s something we haven’t seen here in awhile; can you build on that?
Capel: Yeah hopefully - first of all, the atmosphere was outstanding, especially our student section. They have been outstanding so far. We’ve tried to do things with them and how they were the first game, how they were tonight, they were here early, they were in the lobby, they were standing in the rain, all of those things, so we’re incredibly grateful for it. Just disappointed that our performance wasn’t worth of the energy that they gave. They kept it going throughout, they were cheering us on, so grateful for that and hopefully that’s something that continues.

What’s your sense of Hugley’s participation next week?
Capel: Hopefully he can start doing some contact stuff in practice starting next week. If he does that, if he’s able to do that and has a couple of good days, there’s a possibility he could be available for Wednesday.

What was your team’s mood like in the locker room after the game?
Capel: Not good. I mean, we just got our butts kicked, so I wouldn’t expect it to be a great mood in there. But it’s early. We’ll learn from it. We’ll get better. We’ll use this as a teaching lesson. I’m glad it happened early. Certainly not this game and against this opponent. But it gives us something to learn. We hadn’t been through adversity. Everything has been terrific for us so far. Now we got smacked in the face; let’s see how we respond. And I feel good about the character of our team, that we’ll respond.

We saw some visible frustration from some of your guys to some of the calls and how things were playing out. How do you settle your team down when that frustration starts leaking into play?
Capel: We have to have poise in the midst of chaos. We knew that coming in; we just didn’t do it. It’s easy to say, but when you’re out there and they’re pressing you and they’re banging you and all these different things like that - it’s easy to say to have poise, but you have to be able to do it. That’s where maturity, not having some guys on the court, having some different lineups, it changes some of the things that we tried to work on offensively. And again, give credit to them, because they put us in those situations. If we don’t turn the ball over as much, then maybe they don’t shoot 65% in the first half. Some of those - a lot of those - were just in transition. The way they cut, all of those things, they put us in positions - the way they pressure, you get frustrated, so now all of a sudden, you push off. We have to be able to be poised in those situations. So this is a learning lesson. We’ll play some teams this year that will pressure like that, and when we do, we’ll be better. We’ll use this to get better.

Obviously next year you guys go to West Virginia and that’s the last game of the series. You’ve been involved in it now for a few years; I was wondering what your thoughts are on the series and would you like to see it continue?
Capel: Yeah, the series is awesome. We need to do our part to make it more of a rivalry. But it’s awesome. I hope it’s something that continues. It should continue.

What was the mood at halftime and was it just foul trouble or what led to the game kind of unraveling? Because West Virginia was shooting lights-out but you were much more in the game.
Capel: It was the turnovers, it was the odd lineups that we had, it was not being able to be poised. So the mood at halftime was, ‘Hey, let’s be poised. We’ll have our group in there and we have to defend - they shot 65% in the half, so we have to be better on that end, let’s be more connected.’ It was more upbeat and trying to get us to realize, ‘Hey, we’re still right there. If we can correct these two things - our defense and not turning the ball over, being strong and being connected - it will be better.’ It just didn’t happen for us.

Blake and Nate were both forced to guard bigger players, bigger forwards. How do you feel that those two specifically did on the defensive side tonight?
Capel: No one did well for us defensively tonight. Nobody. You look at what they shot - 52%, 53% from the field, 38 from three - that’s not good defense. So it’s not just Blake or Nate; we didn’t play good defense tonight.