Jeff Capel talked about coming up short after Pitt's loss to Notre Dame on Tuesday. Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Capel: Well, congrats to Notre Dame. Heck of a game, heck of a shot by Hubb at the end. I thought it was well-defended with the shot clock running down. He hit a tough shot. He’s an older guy, he’s been an all-league guy, preseason second-team all-league, and he had a great second half. He had zero in the first half and 15 in the second half.

We did some really good things in this game. We put ourself in the position to win. But we had some breakdowns in the second half that they really exploited. One of the things that we talked about in two days of preparation for this game is that we can’t afford to have those breakdowns, because they can make you pay and they make you pay with three’s. And we did that. We didn’t switch when we were supposed to switch at times, and that led to penetration, which is one of the ways they get three’s. Our ball screen defense wasn’t tight at times, which led to penetration, which led to over-help, which led to them getting three’s.

One of the big plays for me, we were up eight with nine minutes and 31 seconds in the second half and we have the ball and we have an opportunity - we have the momentum, we have an opportunity to go up 10 and we call a play that they hadn’t stopped. We don’t run the play. We throw it to a guy that we say is wide open - you know, there’s a reason why he’s open, and it leads to a turnover, which leads to a three. Now, all of a sudden it can go to 10, now it’s at five and the momentum has shifted.

That’s what I mean. We can’t afford to have those breakdowns. Did we play well enough to win? We did. But we can’t afford to have those breakdowns. So we have to clean that up. We made some big plays down the stretch offensively. We made a big defensive possession in our zone that gave us a chance to run something to get the lead. And our guys fought. But we can’t have those breakdowns against a team that shoots the basketball as well as they did.

You guys seemed like you were defending the perimeter a lot through most of the game; in the final minutes they hit five in a row. Was that because Wesley was really explosive and other guys were creating, or did you see breakdowns in communication?
Capel: I just explained it: it was breakdowns. We didn’t switch when we were supposed to switch, we didn’t defend the ball screen the right way, which enabled them to turn the corner and get to the middle and exploit, get fouled, get layups or spray it out for three at times. A couple times, they drove us in there - we leave the corner, which we teach never to leave the corner and leave a guy that’s wide open that’s hit a couple of three’s already and leave him wide open for it.

They’re really good players and Wesley is terrific, so I’m not saying it wasn’t plays that they made; they took advantage of it. They took advantage of our breakdowns. We gave up middle penetration. We gave up a baseline e drive. For two days, we talked about, they want to drive baseline. That’s what they want to do in their twirl action. And we let them drive baseline and we foul them, not knowing that we have seven team fouls so they’re in the bonus on that play, where we don’t have to foul them. They’re a great free-throw shooting team. They’re one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country. So that’s what I mean: it’s those breakdowns in the game that we have to be cognizant of and be better at executing.

How hard were your missed free throws to swallow, especially Odukale had three three-point plays and then missed one at the end?
Capel: Yeah, it was tough. It was tough. But again, we want him driving, we want him attacking and we feel very confident in him shooting the basketball from the free throw line.

This is the third one-point loss this season, second in ACC play; I’m curious, as a coach, there are obviously losses and games that could have been wins, but how as a coach do you process games like this, where you see that your team is close and that they’re improving from where they were a month ago, but it still ends with a level of disappointment?
Capel: It’s tough, but you have to move on to the next play. You have to teach, you have to try to teach. We’re young. We have a lot of inexperience at this level, and it’s hard to win at this level, whereas you look at that team, I think they have six seniors that play and one freshman. So they have, especially those guys - not Atkinson and Wesley - those other guys have played a lot of games together, they’ve won a lot of games together, they’ve been in big moments together. So Hubb can get past a scoreless first half, where he was 0-for-3, I think, maybe 0-for-4; all of a sudden, in the second half, he goes nuts and he has 15, he hits three three’s, he hits the game-winning shot. Experience does that.

So for us, we just have to keep on showing up every day, keep trying to get better every day. We got a big bounce at St. John’s; it didn’t happen tonight. So we have to move on and get ready for Virginia Tech.

We’ve talked about defense, but offensively, this was probably one of your better offensive performances of the season. What were you seeing from them out there that seemed to be different from other points of the season?
Capel: I just thought that, if we executed and we did it with pace, I thought we could get whatever we wanted against them. I thought that, if we were really wired and ready to go, like, I thought John could foul all of their big guys out. Obviously, for us, the biggest thing is, can we make perimeter shots? Because teams just start to pack it in on him. We made a few today from the three-point line. But I thought we got good looks, I thought we did a good job offensively; we played well enough offensively to win this basketball game. We just can’t have those breakdowns defensively against a team like this. In the first half, I think they had four three’s; in the second half, they’re 6-for-10. We can’t have that. We just can’t. And then we have to understand, offensively, game situations; when we have it, we have to be able to execute what we call, especially when they haven’t stopped it one time all game.

You talked about that point when you were up eight; after that was when Notre Dame went on a run and your guys took four three-pointers. Were those similar situations to what you described, or were those shots that you wanted?
Capel: I thought some of them were good looks.

Look, the bottom line is, if they’re backing off of you, you have to be able to step up and make a shot. It’s hard to get the ball inside if everyone is inside, if everyone is guarding in the paint. So in those moments, we have to be able to step up and make a shot.

I want our guys taking good shots. I’m a big believer - I’ve told guys this ever since I’ve been coaching, I think the greatest player to ever play the game was Michael Jordan, and I think his career shooting percentage was under 50 percent. Which means he missed over half the shots that he took.

So as long as we’re taking good shots, they have permission to miss. We don’t want them to miss, but that’s what it is. As long as we’re taking good shots and we’re getting them out of what we call and what we want to run, I’m good with that. But when we deviate from it, especially something that’s working, then that’s a problem.

This is the second straight game that you guys only had six turnovers. Have you seen a response from your guys to that challenge that you made, or has it been more about the game situation?
Capel: I think a little bit has been the opponents. They haven’t pressured. I think that’s been a big thing. Notre Dame doesn’t pressure. Jacksonville didn’t pressure. I think we’ve gotten a little bit better with it and certainly the assists compared to the made field goals the last two games has been better, and certainly the turnovers have. But I do think some of it has to do with the type of opponent that we’ve played.

Have you seen Mo’s confidence, just game by game, increasing?
Capel: Yeah, I have. He’s really gotten better. We missed him when he was out, when he picked up his third foul early in the second half. He’s a guy that we need on the floor for us. He helps us with spacing. There’s some things that he can do athletically that we don’t have anyone else that can do, so it’s imperative for him to be on the floor for us.

We’re at a point now where games are getting postponed. I know your guys went home for a few days after the Jacksonville game. When they got back, how did you as a staff approach testing? Did you test all the players or just ones with symptoms?
Capel: Nope. Our rule here at Pitt is, if you have symptoms, then you test.

Are all the guys on the team boosted?
Capel: I don’t know the answer to that. They’re vaccinated. But I don’t know the answer to the boost.

Earlier in the season you talked about how John needed to improve his conditioning. He played 34 minutes tonight; have you seen him improve that as the season has gone on?
Capel: It’s improved. Still can continue to get better, but it’s definitely improved.
On a night like tonight when he’s able to have his way physically down low, I guess what you’ve seen from other ACC teams or know of them, how much is that something that seems like it could translate? Because it seems like with the way he’s built and the way he plays, even in the ACC, there aren’t a ton of guys like him.
Capel: Yeah, I honestly haven’t seen a lot of teams in the league, so I’m not really sure of that. I think he’s a good player. I think he has a chance to become a really good player. Shape is a big thing. Discipline is a big thing. All of those things that it takes.

That’s not just for him. That’s what it requires of anyone to become a really good player. I’ve been fortunate to be around some really, really good players on this level, at the next level through USA Basketball, and the one thing that they have in common, is how they work. We as fans of basketball see the finished product. You see a Durant or a Curry or Harden, whoever it is; you don’t see the work. They make it look that easy, but it’s not. They work at it.

So the really, really good players, whether it was a Jayson Tatum or Jabari Parker, whoever it was, they had a discipline about them every day how they showed up to work. John has a chance to become a really good player, but just like it takes for all of those guys, you have to learn that. It’s a big-time investment and requirement that has to be made if you want to do that.

When it comes to the finer points of teaching and instilling the lessons of a team, how much do one-point losses give you the opportunity to show guys how every possession and every play counts and emphasize those points?
Capel: Yeah, it’s something that you have to continue to teach and then hopefully we get it. That’s the big thing. We’ve been in enough of these where hopefully it starts to seep in now, where we don’t have the breakdowns like we had. And they are good, man. They can shoot the heck out of the basketball and when they get in a rhythm offensively, they are very, very difficult for anybody to guard. So I’m not taking anything away from them. But there’s some things I feel like we could have done a little bit better that would have put us in a better position. They still could have made the shots. Once they get into a rhythm like that, they are very, very hard to defend, and they got into a rhythm like that and we couldn’t break it.

John said something along the lines of, when you lose one-point games to teams like Virginia and Notre Dame, you realize you can hang with those teams. Is that something you can take out of it?
Capel: It’s interesting. That’s an interesting comment. I know we can. You know, when I hear that, that he said that, then it makes me feel like they are maybe not sure. And that’s part of growing up: you have to have the confidence that we are good and we can win.

I told our guys, I think we can win every game we play. I think we can lose every game we play. But that’s the line. We have to understand the things that are necessary, that are required for us to win these types of games. And then we have to do it every possession, and that’s difficult. It’s hard. It’s hard. But that’s why winning is hard. At any level. It’s really, really hard, and especially in our league.