Jeff Capel joined the ACC men's basketball coaches teleconference Monday morning and talked about the AP poll, the challenge of facing Boston College and a lot more.

Here's the full rundown of what he said.

There’s a really good chance that your team could appear in the AP top 25 for the first time since 2016. I know you’ve said numerous times you’re focused on the day to day, but what do you think that would mean to some of the members of your fan base, who’ve supported this program through all the highs and lows since the last time it was ranked?
Capel: I’m sure, if it were to happen, there would be people that were excited about it, that are excited about it. And I’m sure it will be a cool thing. But it’s February 13th. We have a lot of season left. For me and us and our program, we’re just trying to lock in on Boston College, trying to figure out how we’re going to defend them, how we’re going to execute and the things that we have to do in order to play well against them. That’s it. I mean, it really is. That’s all we’re trying to concern ourselves with.

I was just wondering if you had an update on Nelly. I know you mentioned he worked through an injury over the last couple of games and if that’s going to affect his status for tomorrow’s game.
Capel: He’ll play, for sure. Look, this time of year, everyone’s as little bit banged up. Everybody. So, we didn’t really do much yesterday; we just kind of walked through some things yesterday. He was able to get treatment before and after practice yesterday, able to get treatment this morning. He’ll do it again before practice here at 1 o’clock, he’ll do it afterwards. He’ll be able to play, but I don’t know if he’ll be - he certainly won’t be 100%.

Fede’s been a real valuable piece for you guys all season long, but it seems like he’s improving week to week and game to game. Has he been adding anything to his game, or is it just about doing what he already does at a higher level?
Capel: It’s just doing what he already does and just playing well. That’s it. I mean, he has gotten better and better as the season’s gone on, as he’s gotten more comfortable. He understands, you know, what’s needed from him, what’s required. He’s a guy that works and is always in the gym. He’ll have an unbelievable challenge tomorrow, because I think Quinten Post is one of the better players in our league and certainly one of the better post guys and very unique in his play, so it will be a different type of challenge. But Fede’s done a good job for us all year. We need him to keep doing it.

You mentioned Quinten Post; can you elaborate on what he brings and the challenge it is to defend him?
Capel: Yeah, first of all, he’s big and skilled. That’s the very first thing. You have a seven-footer that’s big, that’s not thin, that’s big, so he can play with physicality, play through physicality. But then he’s skilled. He can score with either hand, he can go over either shoulder, he can step away and put the ball, you know, shoot it from three. I think he’s their best percentage three-point shooter. He can put it on the floor from out there. He can pass it. I mean, they are a much different team once he got healthy, and I thought the way he finished last year, that he was on this upward trajectory. I thought he finished very, very strong last year, and it’s unfortunate for their team and for him that he got hurt and missed, I think, 11 games. But man, in these 13 that he’s played, he’s played at a really, really high level and some of the games recently, you watched - the last three or four, he’s a handful, man.

Recently, I’ve been watching Jamarius Burton at the foul line and he looks so serious, so focused and so adult, and I was just wondering if you have the type of team that can avoid some of these distractions that might be created if you start getting national notoriety?
Capel: I hope so. That’s something we haven’t dealt with, so my hope is, if that comes, that we handle it the right way. We have been able to handle some small successes here. We’ve had some big wins and we’ve been able to move on to the next play. So that’s going to be important if we start getting - look, that’s why we have just tried to focus on us and not try to allow these other things to seep into our program or to put pressure or to worry about those things. These guys that we have, they have been so locked in and focused on us and the guys in that locker room and guys on our staff and just tried to focus in on what we can control and that’s us. Nothing else. So that’s what we’re going to continue to do.

During your last five games, in one-possession games, your team is 3-0 with wins over Wake, Miami and UNC - the creme de la creme, per se. What do you think contributes to your team’s ability to close out those tough games at the end of regulation? What do you think contributes to that?
Capel: I think we’ve been a group that’s showed toughness, that’s been tough, that’s been together. And we’ve gotten a little fortunate, a little lucky at times. You have to have that. But we are a team that’s been tough and that’s been together and has been able to make plays down the stretch in games when we’ve needed it.

I’m just curious, you guys have grown throughout the year. Why do you think this group has been able to grow together and what’s enjoyable about coaching a team that gets better as the year goes along?
Capel: I think what’s allowed this group to continue to get better and to grow is that they’re unbelievably together, they truly care about each other and everyone has been so focused and locked in on winning. You know, we had five guys that returned from last year; two of them are not with us - Will can’t play and then obviously John’s situation. But then the new guys that we have, have just come in and really tried to be really good teammates, really good guys that care about someone, and as a coach, that’s all you can ask for, really. Especially in today’s climate with transfers and you’re basically going to probably have a new team just about every year. Can you get the chemistry right? We’ve fortunately - knock on wood - we’ve been able to be pretty good there.

I’ve got a question about Duke for you. Given your time with the program, I thought maybe you’d have a unique perspective. What’s the same at Duke this season and what’s different?
Capel: The same is the pride that they have for wearing the jersey, how hard they play. I think they’ve been very good. I haven’t watched them a lot since we played them. I’ve seen them, you know, if we’re scouting someone, their game is on, I’ll take a peek at times. It seems like they’re playing really well together. It seems like they have good chemistry. They’re really defending well. And again, they have a lot of new guys. I think they have one guy back, two guys back, from last year’s team. So to get those guys to mesh and things like that.

The difference is that there’s a new coach on the sideline. That’s the difference. I would say a lot of the same principles that Jon has are probably what he learned playing for Coach and working for Coach.

I was curious: was there a certain point this season, whether it was a win or maybe it was even before the season, when you kind of realized, ‘Hey, I think I’ve got something special here this season’?
Capel: I thought it before the season. I thought it as we, you know, got together. We all together, we had our whole team together at the end of August, and as I started watching us when we started workouts, practices, you started seeing the camaraderie, just how it organically happened. You start seeing some things on the court, seeing how they wanted to share the basketball, how we wanted to move the ball. But just seeing the connections. We did a few things, you know, some team-building things, team-bonding things, and just seeing how it organically happened, that’s when I thought we had - you know, I thought it probably even more when we got punched in the mouth, when we lost those three games and how we came back from that.

That’s a time where it can really become disjointed, and in that moment when that didn’t happen and we just kind of hunkered down and believed in each other more and worked a little bit harder, that’s when I thought, ‘Okay, we have something.’

And then I’d probably say a win would be when we went to Northwestern and won. I think Northwestern is a really, really good basketball team. They’re in the top half - I think they’re in second place in the Big Ten, had an unbelievable win last night, and when we went there as our first true road game and you started to see just how close, you started to see that and it’s maybe the best game we’ve played all year. That’s when I knew, ‘Okay, this is different and we have something here. We have to really, really fight to protect it.’