Jeff Capel met the media after Pitt's loss at Wake Forest on Wednesday. Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Capel: Well, congrats to Wake. They are an outstanding basketball team. They’ve been the most efficient offensive team in our league and they played that way tonight. They got off to such a hot start shooting the basketball, knocked us back early and really kept us back. I thought our guys fought a little bit more in the second half; we only had five turnovers, we executed offensively, but we dug a hole so deep that it was really hard to get out of on the road against a team as good as them. They are as good of an offensive team as we’ve played all season.

Alondes Williams is - he’s a phenomenal player. He’s one assist away from a triple-double, but he just controls the game. He’s strong. What an incredible story of where that kind has come from to the year that he’s having right now.

So again, congrats to then. We have work to do. We’ll get back to work and we’ll be ready to take care of business on Saturday.

Wake obviously did a lot of their damage from deep, shooting about 52% from three tonight; how much of that was them making shots or was there something you were seeing from your defense, as far as guys being up on them and closing out?
Capel: It was a combination of both. Obviously they made shots and they really moved the basketball. Williams is really, really good from the standpoint - he has such a great feel for the game and he sees when guys are open, he anticipates when guys are open, he’s able to make skip passes and to find guys. And a guy like LaRavia that hadn’t made a lot of three’s, he made his first three tonight and he was 4-for-6. That’s something that - we wanted to try to keep him out of the paint, but he made shots tonight from the perimeter.

The thing that I didn’t think that we did a good job of, and it’s not taking anything away from them, I just didn’t think Wake felt us early. And what I mean by that, everything was easy. We didn’t have them turning their back, there wasn’t any pressure on the ball-handler and things like that, and I thought it made it - look, they’re a really good offensive team anyway. I thought it made it a little bit easier for them to see those passes because we weren’t up on the ball-handler like we needed to be.

Is that a matter of effort and intensity?
Capel: We just didn’t do it. We just didn’t do it. We just didn’t do it. It’s not blaming it. We just didn’t do it.

Were you encouraged by the second half at all?
Capel: I was encouraged that we came out and we continued to fight. I wasn’t encouraged by what we did defensively. I was encouraged by some of the things offensively that we did. We scored 51 points in a half; I’m not sure we’ve done that. But defensively is where we have to hang our hat. We’re not going to outscore people. That’s not who we are. We have to get back to the grit and to the dirty work stuff - that’s when we win, that’s when we put ourselves in a position to win when we do that stuff.

How do you get that back?
Capel: Have to work at it.

Femi was able to get things going and was kind of the presence that got you guys on the board early. What did you see from him that sort of stepped things up in this game? It seemed like he found some confidence outside and driving inside.
Capel: Yeah, he just made some plays and made some shots, got into a good rhythm offensively where he made some shots. He was able to make some drives, he made a couple three’s early. With the way they were playing the ball screens, he was able to get downhill, get to the basket and he made some finishes there.

Is Femi doing okay? I saw him gripping the front of his knee.
Capel: I think he’s okay. He was able to play and finish before he fouled out. I think he’ll be okay.

I’m not sure what the protocols are on this, but how much in the past few days were you able to be around the team? Were you able to be there and watch practices?
Capel: No, today is the first day that I’ve seen my team since Sunday morning. I found out 15 minutes before we were getting ready to leave that I was positive. So I haven’t been around them. I’ve Zoomed them, I’ve talked to them, but this is the first time this morning - I got here about 10:15 and we had shoot around at 11:30. Today was my first contact.

Are you feeling okay?
Capel: I’m feeling okay. Thank you.

John had a hard time in the first half; he only put up two points and it was off a jump shot, but it seemed like he was starting to figure things out in the second half. What did he do differently or what you were coaching him to try to adjust in his game that he wasn’t doing right in the first half?
Capel: Roll harder. Finish through contact. Play through contact. Get angles. And just finish. I thought he had some opportunities in the first half. Their length bothered him a little bit in the first half. I thought as the game went on, he adjusted to it and he was able to get angles, post a little bit deeper, roll hard off the ball screens and made some plays at the basket.

We talked earlier about what Wake has done in the portal and how they’ve been able to have such a quick turnaround this season. For you as a coach, how much, if at all, does that give you hope, that there is a chance for programs to get turned around quickly like that?
Capel: Yeah, it’s encouraging. They did an outstanding job in the portal. They got four guys that have been difference-makers for them. And what it’s done is, it’s put their returning guys that they have - Mucius and Daivien Williamson, who are good players but it’s put them into positions where they are best suited, which is not the primary role but really, really, really good players but playing off of some primary guys. So it’s encouraging.

College athletics and especially college basketball is very different right now. We have to adjust to it. But there is an opportunity to improve your team fast, and Wake’s a great example of that.

Of the last five losses, this was the fourth one by double digits. How in the past have you seen your team rebound from games like, and is there any effect at all that these keep stacking up after your team had been competitive for so much of the first month of ACC play?
Capel: I try not to concern myself with that. I try to keep it one game at a time and focus on that game that’s in front of us. All of my attention now will be on Virginia Tech and what we have to do. For the most part this season, our team has responded when we haven’t played well. We certainly haven’t in the past couple of games. At B.C., which was just a weird weekend and day and things like that - obviously, we played an outstanding team and we didn’t do it today. We responded after Clemson and hopefully we can respond on Saturday.

How do you plan to prepare for two quick games like you have against Virginia Tech? You’ve had a lot of irregular things lately and this seems to be another one of them.
Capel: We’ll just prepare for the one on Saturday first. That’s it. We’ll put all of our eggs in that basket. We’ll get back to work with our guys tomorrow, we’ll get to work as a staff tonight and we’ll just focus on Saturday, and after Saturday, we’ll focus on Monday. We know that we’re in a tough stretch coming up where we have a lot of games in a lot of days. But we have to prepare. That’s the way the schedule is and we’ll take them one at a time. Hopefully we’ll be ready for Saturday.