Capel on Boeheim's comments, NIL, the grind and more

Obviously a lot of comments made by Jim Boeheim this weekend; I’m interested to hear your reaction to his comments he gave to ESPN about your program and its recruiting over the offseason?
Capel: Yeah, I have no comment. I have no reaction to it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion of what they think, so I have no comment on anyone else’s opinion.

I’m not going to ask about Jim’s comments per se, but I wanted to ask you, when you talked to guys like Nelly, Blake and Greg about coming to Pitt, how much was NIL part of the discussion when you’re talking to those guys about coming to Pitt and what brought them to the Panthers?
Capel: I didn’t talk to them about NIL. We never had a discussion about it. Last year when we were recruiting, we were in a period here in the state of Pennsylvania when we could have no involvement in it. So it never came up. I mean, we have a guy from Colgate, a guy who hadn’t played in two years in Blake Hinson, and a guy that had never really started at Marquette. Those are the three guys that you mentioned, so it never really was a conversation that we had during our time recruiting them.

As you look at your team and human nature, if you’re struggling, then practice can maybe drag at the end of the year, but when you’re having a great year like you’re having, is there a different energy in the gym for your guys, just because of how things are going?
Capel: There is a different energy when you win. There definitely is. This time of year, the month of February, is really the grind. If you’re having some positivity as far as winning some games, you’re a little bit more energetic, you feel a little bit better, there’s maybe a little bit more excitement about being in the gym and practicing. We’ve been on both sides. Even last year, when we won those three games in a row, during that time, it was a pretty different feeling in the gym when we came to practice. So it’s definitely different, but the thing we’ve tried to do is have positive energy all year. Even when we lost those three games in a row early in the season, there was excitement to get back and get to work, and we’ve tried to maintain that all year.

You guys are one of six teams at the top of the league separated by one game in the loss column. Obviously you’re having a good year and getting to March is important, but what would a league title mean to your program?
Capel: Honestly, we’re not even thinking about that, man. We’re thinking about the next step, and that’s what we’ve done all year and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’re just going to worry about what’s right in front of us. Right now, that’s about having a good practice today and trying to make sure we’re prepared for a team in Louisville that’s gotten better, that’s played better. You talk about energy, I think the job that Kenny Payne has done - and it’s difficult and it’s hard to see, but those guys are still playing hard, they’re still fighting. When you can do that when you haven’t won and you haven’t seen the success, to me, that shows their coaching staff and their players are still in the fight. So that’s all we’re worried about. And that’s it. We’re not worried about anything else.

In a general sense about NIL, the lot might say that there needs to be some more guardrails up regarding protection for the programs and how it affects the players. Where do you feel the next step in the development of NIL could be?
Capel: I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. I’m just going by what they tell us that we can do now. That’s it. And again, I haven’t really thought about NIL that much. I’m trying to think about our team, how we can get better. That’s it. I really haven’t given much thought about it at all.

And when it comes to Louisville, you’re facing them for the second time this season. This isn’t the first time you’ll see a team twice. What’s the difference and the challenge in preparation for a team the second time?
Capel: You know, we just played them a few weeks ago. I feel like in the last four games, they’ve gotten better, if you look at their shooting percentages, their made three-pointers per game from when we played them the first time, they’ve gone up significantly. Their scoring has gone up. I think they’ve gotten better. They’ve won a game against Georgia Tech. They had an opportunity to win a game against Florida State in their last game. They were down big at Notre Dame but they fought back and got themselves back into it. So I think that’s the challenge: just how much better they’re playing from when we played them the first time.

I know Coach Boeheim reached out to Coach Forbes after he made the comments. I was was wondering if you had spoken to Coach Boeheim since he said what he said.
Capel: I did.

What did he say?
Capel: That’s between me and Coach Boeheim.

You guys had two days off, I assume, after the North Carolina game and practiced the last two days. Did you notice any difference in the team, because you wanted them to heal up and recharge a little bit after a tough stretch there?
Capel: Yeah. Having those two days off were really big for us. I thought guys were mentally and physically a little bit more fresh. Obviously, like I mentioned earlier, this time of year is really hard. It’s the grind. You’ve been at it and everyone on every team is a little bit sore and a little bit banged up and things like that, so if you can get a few days, a couple days to take off and just allow your body and your mind - I thought we’ve had really good practices the past couple of days. We need to have a really good practice today and get ready or tomorrow.

You’ve won your last three by a combined six points. How much of that is preparation and confidence, and how much of it is good old-fashioned luck?
Capel: It’s a combination of both. I think you have to have both. I think we have guys that aren’t afraid of moments and that have stepped up and made big plays, whether it’s getting stops, whether it’s making free throws, getting fouled, executing, being down and ending the game on a big run. But also there’s luck involved. When you have a guy that’s a really good shooter and he gets a wide-open three and he misses it. Or a guy that’s a very good scorer, he drives it and gets a pretty good shot, but he just misses it. So it’s a little bit of both. It’s a little bit of both.