Energy, Motivation, Mental Preparedness

[Chescat]

What bothered me the most against St. Francis(besides still not
knowing how to attack a zone), was our lack of energy in our
first game. That was the ONE thing that Capel's previous Pitt
teams had. His first year upsets of Fl. St. and Louisville were
examples of that. Last year's upset off ACC champ Fl. St. in
our first game was another game showing how well Capel
could get his players motivated and over achieve.
This was what I perceived to be a strength of Capel's
coaching ability.

I haven't given up on Capel and this team. I'll be interested
to see how he has them motivated and mentally prepared
for this next game. Not only this game, but the ones to
follow this season.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I thought Capel did a good job in Year 1. Mostly FR plus JWF and Sidy. The team played with energy, fight, and toughness. They came out that way last season and then all of a sudden, it all stopped and they just went through the motions. I mean that game vs FSU, you could feel the intensity. They were all in. Hard to explain what happened.

 

[Chescat]

I thought Capel did a good job in Year 1. Mostly FR plus JWF and Sidy. The team played with energy, fight, and toughness. They came out that way last season and then all of a sudden, it all stopped and they just went through the motions. I mean that game vs FSU, you could feel the intensity. They were all in. Hard to explain what happened.

I've always felt that when a team wasn't all that talented,
it was easier to get it motivated for an upset and to
overachieve through energy, hustle, grit, and work ethic.
My sense is three years into Capel's tenure he and his
players feel and think they're better and it's now their
time to achieve.
The reality IMO is they're still young, inexperienced and
are breaking in new players. Are they now really more
talented? Is Horton the be all end all that we heard
about? Based on what I saw in one game....no.
I do think we have talent and better depth. However
they're still young and inexperienced. X still has to get
his game back, Champagnie is only a soph, and the inside
game showed little the other night. Toney looks better.
Capel will have to show that he can put theses varying
pieces together. We'll see., but they ain't good enough
to just step out on the floor and play. They still have to
show that energy and grit or they stay in the basement.

 

[mrhoopfan]

Not making any excuses....but I think we underestimate the impact of having a solid crowd on 18-21 year olds. Gives the home squad some extra juice..... Definitely provides an advantage/disadvantage for a team.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Honestly that was my beef! The effort sucked.

 

[Protes]

Hrrrmmmph. You know, I'm kinda getting tired of Capel's "we didn't have energy" excuse. He seems to whip it out every time we lose. If our program had an established system in place and our players were disciplined enough to know their role in it and how to execute, we wouldn't lose to the likes of SF (PA). But we don't seem to play the game that way.

It's also odd because we've heard from Vader often how Capel wants "junkyard dog" type players. Well, "junkyard dog" type players don't show up with zero or low energy. They are hungry and relentless. If the guys JC's recruited don't display that trait on game day, it suggests his judgement of them is way off.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

What bothered me the most against St. Francis(besides still not
knowing how to attack a zone), was our lack of energy in our
first game. That was the ONE thing that Capel's previous Pitt
teams had. His first year upsets of Fl. St. and Louisville were
examples of that. Last year's upset off ACC champ Fl. St. in
our first game was another game showing how well Capel
could get his players motivated and over achieve.
This was what I perceived to be a strength of Capel's
coaching ability.

I haven't given up on Capel and this team. I'll be interested
to see how he has them motivated and mentally prepared
for this next game. Not only this game, but the ones to
follow this season.

The answer here may be as simple as---Capel preached to the players that you have to respect any and all opponents so don't disrespect St. Francis. But, then, the players didn't really buy the message internally. They probably would have bought the message if we were playing an FSU again. Sometimes young guys need to learn the hard way. Hoping they have gotten that message now.

IMHO, over-analysis going on here by we fans.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Hrrrmmmph. You know, I'm kinda getting tired of Capel's "we didn't have energy" excuse. He seems to whip it out every time we lose. If our program had an established system in place and our players were disciplined enough to know their role in it and how to execute, we wouldn't lose to the likes of SF (PA). But we don't seem to play the game that way.

It's also odd because we've heard from Vader often how Capel wants "junkyard dog" type players. Well, "junkyard dog" type players don't show up with zero or low energy. They are hungry and relentless. If the guys JC's recruited don't display that trait on game day, it suggests his judgement of them is way off.

There’s always an excuse or an illusion with this program. Soon we’ll start hearing how we’re in difficult times using COVID as an excuse or he’ll say we’re here for a bigger mission referencing the social justice messaging or my personal favorite the guy sitting out is the best player we have and the savior of the program.

 

[Chescat]

Not making any excuses....but I think we underestimate the impact of having a solid crowd on 18-21 year olds. Gives the home squad some extra juice..... Definitely provides an advantage/disadvantage for a team.

True, but on the other hand, St. Francis came here with that
"extra juice" you mentioned. THEY did what Pitt perviously
did under Capel. They IMO were less talented, but overachieved.
They had that grit, hustle and work ethic.
Oh....and they also were not disjointed as we were. They were IMO,
extremely well coached and organized. On top of that they wanted it
more than we did. All that is the perfect combination to overachieve.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

There’s always an excuse or an illusion with this program. Soon we’ll start hearing how we’re in difficult times using COVID as an excuse or he’ll say we’re here for a bigger mission referencing the social justice messaging or my personal favorite the guy sitting out is the best player we have and the savior of the program.

Agreed - I’m tired of the excuses and rehashed cliches as to why we lost. Everyone is dealing with the same issues.

 

[BFo8]

I thought Capel did a good job in Year 1. Mostly FR plus JWF and Sidy. The team played with energy, fight, and toughness. They came out that way last season and then all of a sudden, it all stopped and they just went through the motions. I mean that game vs FSU, you could feel the intensity. They were all in. Hard to explain what happened.

Pretty much feel the same way. For all of the faults he may have had JWF played hard and was a big part of what was missing from last years team. If your team isn’t particularly talented you better play with energy every single time out or you’re going to end up with the same results that we saw last season.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Pretty much feel the same way. For all of the faults he may have had JWF played hard and was a big part of what was missing from last years team. If your team isn’t particularly talented you better play with energy every single time out or you’re going to end up with the same results that we saw last season.

JWF was a better player than we think but it wasnt just him. The Year 1 team played with an edge. They were fun to watch. Even at 3-15, they were competitive in most games and the league was much better in Year 1 than Year 2. 3-15 in Year 1 > 6-14 in Year 2

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

JWF was a better player than we think but it wasnt just him. The Year 1 team played with an edge. They were fun to watch. Even at 3-15, they were competitive in most games and the league was much better in Year 1 than Year 2. 3-15 in Year 1 > 6-14 in Year 2

Yep. By every measurement they were better in year 1 than year 2 and unfortaTately looks like year 3 as well.

 

[Chescat]

Quite a bit of criticism of Capel in this thread (myself included).
While I believe he's deserving of this criticism, one thing he did
say post game was....."we're not as good as we think we are." If
he sees this about his players, that's a good thing IMO. Now
what he needs to do is get his players to understand this. If
that understanding takes place, maybe he can get them to
buy in and not underestimate ANY opponent in the college
basketball world. Then maybe they can play with the energy
and grit of his first team, and that team last year that beat
Fl. State opening night. They sure as hell didn't win on talent,
because that FL. State team was ACC champion.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

JWF was a better player than we think

There were some people here trying to tell YOU that Wilson-Frame was a good player. Just because YOU (and to be fair, many others) were having none of it doesn't mean that he was better than WE think.