Capel on the big second half, Xavier Johnson, and more

The first half was really another carryover from last game. It wasn’t pretty, it was actually ugly. But I thought we continued to defend and somehow we had a lead at the half. I thought we did some really good things in the second half. We’re a team struggling with confidence. Stuff for us is different this year and guys are having to get adjusted, and what I mean is for this group because of some of the momentum we had last year in creating hope, there are expectations and that is new for this group. Then we come out and we win the first game and I think those expectations become even more and then we have a setback and it messed with us and that’s what you see. So that’s why I’m really proud of what we did in the second half. We came out and shot 63% from the field. I think we only had three turnovers. It was great to see Xavier have some plays that we know he’s capable of playing that we’ve seen before. It was great to see Au’Diese back on the offensive glass and doing that. Trey made some shots, Justin had a double-double, so it was good just to see t5he ball go through the basket. We hadn’t seen that in the previous 40 minutes - 20 minutes in the first half and the last 20 minutes. I’m proud of that, hopefully it’s something to build on and move forward with.

Did you expect that kind of outburst from Au’Diese?

Capel: No, I didn’t. He hasn’t played well, just like all of us. It’s not one guy, for us it’s never about one guy and we haven;’t played well, especially offensively. We have actually done a pretty decent defensively in every game we’ve played, but offensively we’ve struggled to find a rhythm. It was good to see him do some things and getting back to who he is, which is a just this competitive guy that is on the glass and does all the tough, dirty things and he did that.

What was your message to your players at halftime?

Capel: Well I think anytime you see the ball go through the basket that changes a lot. That’s something that helps guys get confidence. Our message was to continue to defend and offense move, and play with confidence. Like they’re our shots, don’t feel the burden or pressure every shot you take. Again there was a big basket in the second half, we had some movement and we shared the ball and we had some positive things happen.

Xavier scored in the second half, but he was also a bester distributor too. Do those things go hand in hand for him?

Capel: I think they do, because he’s scoring and he made some 3’s and you got to come out on him a little bit more and so I think they go hand in hand. I think he had three turnovers at the start of the game and he had one for the rest of the game that was good. I thought Onye (Ezeakuado) came in and gave us some great minutes -some really, really positive minutes and I thought that was able to give X a little bit of a break and for him to see the game and just watch it for a little bit and get back in there and have some positive things happen.

What was your thoughts on the paint play and the rebounds?

Capel: I thought we rebounded well, especially on the offensive end. We’d like to get a little bit more offensively inside. We have to finish some plays, we have to be able to play through contact. I thought it was OK, but I thought defensively we did some good things.

What’s Gerald’s status?

Capel: He rolled his ankle, not sure when he’ll be available. He rolled his ankle yesterday in practice.

How when you know the Florida State game will be put in the rearview mirror?

Capel: I do think we’ve put it in the rearview. I don’t think we’re still harping on that. I just think there’s a different type of pressure I think our guys are feeling and it’s because of expectations. No one on this team had the pressure of outside expectations last year - nobody. And again because of how we finished up last year and there was hope, guys coming back, and all these different things and there were some expectations coming into the season and then we win the first game and maybe those expectations increase and maybe the way we think about ourselves increases. So we’re hit with a big dose of reality right away and I think we’re just a team struggling with confidence and we’re still really young and I don’t use that as an excuse, but it’s a fact. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact and so we have a lot of work to do and that’s why I’m excited. I hope people are excited, I’m excited, I hope our guys are excited because we did some good stuff in the second half and we did some stuff that we can build on and we can move forward with and we should be excited about that. We have an opportunity coming up on Thursday to do something we haven’t done this year, which is to win two games in a row and there should be an excitement about that. I know I’m certainly going to be that way and I hope everyone is associated with our program.

When you talk about that confidence point and when X steps up he strokes it pretty good. Is it his lack of confidence in wanting to shoot the ball instead of penetrating?

Capel: As a player, confidence is a big part of your game and if you get down on yourself and start to question and start to think that can make you a little bit slower. It can make you where you’re not - you don’t play off instinct where you’re thinking. We are a team, we are a group that can’t overthink stuff and that’s happened and part of that’s been because of the way we’ve been defended in some of these games. And it’s different, especially the expectation on certain guys and so I think that’s a part of it. I think he struggled shooting the ball so it was good to see some shots go in today.

On Friday you talked about when you can’t run offense, you have to play offense. Did you guys do a better job of that tonight?

Capel: I thought we did a better job that. They did some different stuff on ball screens, they switched everything and trapping. I thought we were stagnant in the first half, I thought we had more movement in the second half and that opened up some driving lanes for us. We still have to get better of moving it and us moving. A lot of times we just stand and just watch and a guy is just trying to go one on one and beat four guys and the other guys. So we have to help them understand that and put them in positions where we all can be better offensively.

Is there something you are doing well offensively that causes to get you guys to the free-throw line?

Capel: Well I just think we’re a team where we constantly try to drive and get paint touches and with the way the game is officiated now with hand checks and things that makes it, especially when you have good spacing and good movement and you have some guys that are pretty good off the bounce, you are able to get that at times.

How much more problematic can expectations be when they are sophomores dealing with them as opposed to juniors and seniors?

Capel: I think the juniors and seniors are still dealing with it here because no one’s ever won. No one has ever done anything, no-one in this program as a player has dealt with expectations - no one, and there’s a different burden when you’re expected to do something and you’ve failed and it doesn’t happen as fast as maybe you want it to happen or people think that it should happen and you can get in your head. And with the way things are now, especially for young people, there are more avenues for them to see the things, for them to hear these things and as much as you tell them to not pay attention to it, it’s hard too. It’s hard for adults not to pay attention to it, so it’s something we have to continue to teach them.

Everyone else has a lot of expectations for your team. What were your expectations?

Capel: For us to continue to get better, for us to take positive steps going forward, that was my expectation. I never put an expectation on a number of wins or things like that. I wanted us to be the best team that we could be, I knew there were going to be growing pains. I knew our schedule was challenging, early especially, so that was my expectation and that’s still my expectation.

Xavier mentioned deactivating his social media to remove some of that noise. Did you encourage that in any way?

Capel: We had a long talk after the West Virginia game before I came up and did media. One of the things I shared with him is that with him, he was a guy last year like I equated it to Rocky III. In Rocky I and II, he’s this guy from Philly, the street guy and he hadn’t done anything. You think in Rocky II, he’s trying to do a commercial and he can’t talk and he’s just this hungry dude from Philly and he’s fighting Apollo. In the second one, he’s got a mission and his wife just had a baby - just all these different things, but he’s just this hungry guy and he wins the title. And then as Rocky III starts, like he’s the man. He’s doing commercials and he’s in all these things and he’s getting ready to fight Clubber Lang and that’s who he was and he’s not that anymore, he’s big time and whatever and he’s got his butt beat, because he’s lost his edge. Sometimes when you have success, it can make you lose your edge or what you perceive as success. He broke the freshman scoring record. He was a guy last year that was incredibly hungry, because nobody knew who the heck he was, there was no expectation for him. All of the sudden, you have a good year individually and so there’s an expectation of, ‘Well I could be a pro, something I’ve dreamed about and maybe it’s close.’ Success can make you soft sometimes and so we talked about that. We talked about reading all of these things and you can believer them, either way, and that’s how this stuff can influence you. I didn’t know that he deactivated, I had no idea. I just told him that you’ve got to get away from it and you have to get your edge back, you have to get back what made you really good and so I’m glad to hear that he did that. That’s not something I’ve said in here. I don’t tell guys to get off, that’s their right to have that, but they have to handle that responsibly.

Was he familiar with the Rocky movies?

Capel: He said he was, but I don’t know if he was, but he said he was.

Did you see that edge come back?

Capel: I saw it in the second half. I saw some, I saw some of it in the second half - the confidence and things like that. Like I told him, it’s not going to happen overnight, it’s not. You have to build that back because these are habits, man. All of us kn ow as adults, habits are hard to break. If you have a great habit, that’s hard to break, too. So he has to get back to being that hungry dude from Northern Virginia, that nobody really knew about and that came here with something to prove. He’s got to get back to being that, and we have to be that as a group.

What was it like to share a sideline with King Rice?

Capel: When I was being recruited out of high school, I used to go to Carolina games a lot. They were in my final-4, but it was really always just two. He was player and I would hang out in the locker room and he was always incredibly cool with me then and just over the years and staying in touch in the profession. I think he had a great deal of respect for my dad, and I think my dad had a great respect for him. I think my dad was someone that maybe he leaned on in the profession and went to and I’m happy with the success he’s had as a coach and what he’s done there.