Jeff Capel talked about his connection with Duke head coach Jon Scheyer and more topics during the ACC coaches teleconference on Monday.

Here's the full rundown of what he said.

Could you give us some insight on your relationship with Jon (Scheyer) as coaches who won a championship together and how you guys worked together over the years?
Capel: Yeah, Jon joined the staff after an unbelievable playing career. Right away, I could tell - the first year, when he was in a special assistant role and just learning, I could tell right away that, number one, he was really smart, very inquisitive, had a great feel. I could see right away why he was a very good player, because he had a great feel. And the thing that I think was maybe a little bit of a surprise to me - because I didn’t know him before then; I watched him play, but I didn’t know him - I thought he had a really unique feel for people. So it wasn’t a surprise to me that Coach wanted him on the road and as a full-time assistant so far. And when he joined the staff in that capacity the next year, he was a very enthusiastic learner. He just wanted to learn, wanted to do so much, and I felt like - I think I told him this, he had it. Whatever ‘it’ is, you could tell that he had it, just because of his feel, his feel for the game, his feel for people, his ability to get along with people, just in all of those things. So I’m not surprised with the success that he’s had during his time there as an assistant, as associate head coach and now as the head coach.

You’ve been back to Cameron as a coach before; has it become normal yet or is it still kind of strange to be on the other side?
Capel: It’s interesting. This is my fifth year and this will only be my second time, because we were supposed to play them there a couple years ago; that was the Covid year, so the game was canceled down there.

I’m pretty sure it will still be weird. It will still be strange leading up to it. Once the ball goes up, it’s competition, so you don’t think about any of those things. But when I walk out and I see some of the people I’m sure that will be behind their bench, up in the stands, closer toward our bench, some of the legacy people that will be there, that will be a little bit weird. But it is what it is. It’s competition and they had a big win the other day and they’re talented and I know they’ll be hungry. So we better be.

Will it be any easier because K won’t be there?
Capel: I’m pretty sure it won’t. I mean, obviously that will be very different, very weird. But there’s still guys on that staff that I have really good relationships with, so it is what it is.

Jon Scheyer said earlier today that he met you at the 2010 Final Four for the first time. I was wondering if you could take us back to that and also how much do you see in terms of style differences in the way Duke played under K versus under Jon, if you see anything or if you notice that there’s as very similar base of what they do?
Capel: Yeah, for the first part, as far as meeting him. They were getting prepared; I don’t know if it was the semifinal game or the final, but I went over just to see the coaches, to see Coach and the staff. Chris and Wojo were on the staff; obviously I’m really close with them. We were teammates. So they were at, I think it was Ruth’s Chris, and I stopped by to see them, which I ended up meeting the whole team, meeting the guys on the team.

I don’t really remember much. It was kind of a, to be honest with you, a cloud for me. I was going through some personal things at my job at the time. So I don’t really remember much from that. As far as stylistically, there are some things that are similar but there are some things that are different. I figured it would be. Jon wants to put his imprint on that program. He has really good ideas, and like I said from the beginning, he has a really good feel. I could see that when we worked together and you can see it now in some of the tweaks and things that he’s done to put his imprint on his program and his team right now.

What specifically would you say has been his imprint, the things you notice that are different?
Capel: Just some things offensively, some things defensively, just some of the things that they’re doing.

Just from watching Saturday’s game back, it seemed like JB had a lot of opportunities to either go iso or take his defender one-on-one. Is that comfortability with him being able to do that still growing? Where do you feel with all of that? And how has JB come along throughout this part of the season?
Capel: I think I have felt comfortable with it and we have felt comfortable with it all year with certain matchups, depending on what the defense is doing, how they’re playing us and things like that. Obviously, we have a lot of confidence in Jamarius, in order to make plays, whatever the play is. He’s a good and willing passer. He has the ability because of his strength to get by people and to draw defenders. We feel very comfortable with the ball in his hands and him making plays for us.

As a follow-up to that, is that matchup-dependent thing, is that him judging that in the moment on the floor or is that a little bit more of game tape study?
Capel: I think it’s game-planning, talking about it, going through, seeing matchups, trying to get matchups and us trying to attack, depending on what the defense is doing.

You mentioned after the Clemson game about what Nate has brought to your team. Obviously the shots haven’t been falling, but he brought you some other things. I was curious about the fact that he came in as a good shooter; what hasn’t clicked for him offensively and what have you worked on with him while the shots haven’t been falling?
Capel: He just hasn’t made shots in games. He makes them in practice, if we can get that to transfer over. I thought he played an unbelievable game. I thought he played with force. The past few times he has gotten in, I thought he’s played with passion, with energy, I thought he’s played really strong. I have confidence in Nate making shots in games. He just has to do it. It has to translate in what he does. He works at it, he stays after, he gets in early, so we have confidence in him. All the shots that he took, they were good shots. They were our shots. They just didn’t fall. I want him to continue to shoot them if he gets those shots on Wednesday, on Saturday, next week, in games, I want him ready to shoot them and we’ll live with the results.