Pitt Men's Basketball Quotes

Pitt Men’s Basketball Quotes Pitt vs. North Carolina • Tuesday, January 26, 2021 Petersen Events Center • Pittsburgh, Pa. Pitt Head Coach Jeff Capel Opening statement: “First of all, congrats to North Carolina. They are playing good basketball right now. They’re young guys, they’re freshman guards have really grown up and are playing much better than they were earlier in the year. Then their veteran, big guys, were the two guys that really impacted the game at a significant level. Their two big guys scoring the basketball, but then their other older guy, Leaky Black, with what he was able to do and being disruptive on the defensive end. So, congrats to them. They’re a good team, they’re playing really well. Right now, I thought we did some good things at times, but we have to be able to do really good things for 40 minutes, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that today.” On what can be done to mitigate the size disparity between the two teams: “Well, most of the teams we play against are bigger than us and we’ve done a pretty good all year. We have to block out. We have to be physical; we were not physical today. We were weren’t physical with our block outs. We weren’t physical trying to get open. They were able to take us out of some things with their pressure and we have to do a better job of that and that’s what we talked about. Rebounding was going to be a significant portion of this game. We know that’s a major strength of theirs – they’re #1 in the conference and #2 in the country in offensive rebounding, and when you know Carolina’s program, that’s what they do. Then, you know, transition defense is going to be paramount. We thought if we were able to rebound like we had been earlier in the year or prior to the past three games, we would be able to get out and transition against them, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.” On if he needs to find ways to get Justin [Champagnie] more than nine shots in a game: “We do. We absolutely do and again, we have to run our offense better in order to do that. We have to be able to execute. We have to be able to get into entries and get the ball where we want to get it to. North Carolina did a good job of taking us out of some of our stuff today.” Senior Guard/Forward Justin Champagnie: On how the team will get ready for the weekend game: “Like we got to look at what we did wrong and you got to correct the mistakes, it's not like we'll make like, it's not like we can't compete with all these teams, we can compete with every team in the ACC. It's just a matter of, we have to fix the little mistakes. It’s like the little things that build up, is what leads to us losing games. I feel like if we personally got an offensive rebound like the long ones that went to the guard, or even, even the loose balls. We could have won the game in fact they outscored us because of offensive rebounds, like literally that's the only reason why I feel that we lost.” On if there’s anything he’s been proactively working on to improve his three-point range: “I feel confident, you know, me and Kurt JC work a lot on threes and sort of miracles alone. He put up a lot of shots and before the game every game here, Jason simply arranges wonderopolis in 3D so it is still coming together, but I guess I should have done more today to help my team win.” Opponent Quotes Pitt vs. North Carolina • Tuesday, January 26, 2021 Petersen Events Center • Pittsburgh, Pa. North Carolina head coach Roy Williams On how pleased he was with the performance of his bigs today: “Well, needless to say, I thought it was huge. The first half, we were like 10-for-15 between Garrison [Brooks] and Armando [Bacot] and our starting-three perimeter players will like two-for-10, so we emphasize it again at halftime. We should throw it into those big guys and then, when they throw it back out, it'll be a better shot. I think we did a great job of getting it to them in the second half. They had a difficult time handling our big guys inside and I think that was a key point in the game. The other key point to me, Coach Robinson said that every time they made a run, we answered it and I think that was a big thing too because we can't shoot for four-for-17 from the three point line and seven-for-14 from the foul line. We luckily got by today because they didn't shoot it much better, six-for-15.” On how big it was to keep Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Tony in check: “Yeah, that was big. We've been letting guys set career highs against us, but against Pittsburgh, [Xavier] Johnson is one of the two focal points we talked about. The other was no doubt about it Champagnie. We tried to build a wall, not let him get all the way to the basket and had to get our big guys to help and slow him down. I think that was important to us. We changed the way we covered a screen on a ball about a third of the way into the second half because they were scoring every time and all of a sudden that helped us a little bit. I think with Johnson, trying to make sure that he doesn’t get it all the way to the rim every time. I think [Au’Diese] Tony’s a big time player too, he just didn't shoot as well today, so I was pleased with that part of it. Justin Champagnie is having a better year at this moment than anybody in the league. We had a defensive possession in the first half where we're supposed to be man to man, and we let him cut straight to the ball, catch and lay it up. We had more than one freshmen out there, but they're not freshmen by now. But happy to get a big win and get out of town as quickly as we can.” On how proud he was of the first half performance and if it was easy to carry it to the second half: “I think that Garrison and Armando were 10-for-15 and we had to keep telling the guys, ‘Let's keep trying to go in there.’ We think that Kerwin Walton is gonna make every shot and he made two-of-five, but we think he's gonna make every one of them. We got to look for him more. Caleb [Love] made a big three and then yet Caleb goes to the free throw line and misses both foul shots but we get a tip out and then he goes in and scores the layup. Yes, I'm getting happier with them, I get more proud of them because it's a hard league to try to get everybody together on the same page because every night is a battle.I do believe that that we are getting a little bit better, and a little bit better and hopefully we'll keep that going on our practices in next couple of days.” .

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