Jeff Capel’s team posted a blowout in its second game of the season, and here’s a full rundown of what Capel had to say after Friday’s win over VMI.

Capel: Really good win for us. We played very well. We continued to play defense at a high level and I think we had carryover from our first game, from the second half of our first game on the offensive end. I think the thing that I was most pleased with tonight was how unselfish we were. As we continued to build the lead, we played the game the right way. You know, we passed on a good shot for a great shot. Obviously it helps when you are shooting the ball as well as we shot it tonight with 13 three’s, but again, I thought it was the manner in which we got them. We wanted to beat their 2-3 matchup down the court and we did a good job of that because our defense was good. And we wanted to attack it and drive it and kick, and I thought our guys were incredibly unselfish.

It was great having Jared back. Jared’s our best shooter and he got it going for us in the first half, coming in and knocking in his first three three’s. Jared’s a really important guy for us, not just his scoring but his leadership, his confidence and his versatility. The thing I was most pleased was that he had four assists and zero turnovers. During my time in coaching Jared since I’ve been here, I think that’s the thing that I’ve been most surprised by - I think he’s a good passer and I think he has a good feel for the game. I never saw that last year because he shot all the time, but he has other facets of his game that we have encouraged him to show and I think he has done a really good job of that.

So again, really good win for us. This is three good offensive halves in a row for us and four good defensive halves, and we need to continue that.

Jared knew he was going to be suspended for that first game; what lessons do you think he took away from that?
Capel: I’m not sure. That’s something you’d have to ask him about. One of the things that I talked to him about before the game against Youngstown State was that even though he’s not playing, he’s still important. We need his voice. You can see the game in a different way from sitting there and we have a lot of young guys and I thought he was incredibly unselfish against Youngstown State. He was into the game, even though he wasn’t playing. That’s one of the things we talked about today, just his voice. And letting the game come to you. You’re a gifted offensive player; you don’t have to hunt. It will come to you. Just play the game the right way. And he did a good job of that.

You had some success in the last game getting to the rim, how impressed were you with your guys’ ability to change gears when it became obvious they were going to hang back and try to take that away?
Capel: Well, it was big for us. Shooting hasn’t been a strong suit of ours. I’m not saying it’s a weakness, but we’ve been streaky. Today it was a good streak. I’d love for us to continue on a good streak. But it was really important for us. The other thing tonight that was really good was that we were 15-of-18 from the free-throw line. Those have been two areas - shooting three’s and shooting free throws - that we hadn’t done as good a job with. And then we had 24 assists on 33 field goals; that speaks to the unselfishness. A lot of those three’s came, you know, we were standstill three’s with our feet set off of penetration, and I think those are much higher percentage shots. We did a good job of knocking them in tonight.

In a game like this with a big lead, you were mixing up defenses, using a full-court press - is that just a way to keep guys engaged when you’re up by 30 or 40 in a game?
Capel: That’s a great question. We were trying to work on some things. We haven’t done zone in a game. We’ve practiced zone but we haven’t done it, so we wanted to take a look at our zone today. We hadn’t done, with the exception of man presses, we hadn’t done anything else. We wanted to take a look at it and try to see that. I don’t know if it was to keep them engaged; we talked to them about staying engaged, we talked to them about playing the right way and continuing to build and create these habits. And again, they did a good job with that. So I don’t know if it was about trying to keep them engaged; they did a good job of being engaged throughout and that’s something that I’m proud of.

You won these two games in different styles, going to the rim a lot Tuesday night and tonight shooting three’s; do you think you can continue playing with both styles?
Capel: I mean, I’d like to. I’d like to. Time will tell that. I know that we will start to face better competition. I understand that. That will happen Monday. The team we’re playing Monday’s good. They’re a talented team. So we know that as the competition increases, they’ll present different challenges. But we want to play a certain way: we want to play with tempo, we want to play with pace, we want to have good spacing, we want to share the basketball, and if we’re getting good looks, I’ll live with it. Obviously, you want to make them, but if we’re getting good looks, you have to live with the results of that. I think if we get good looks and we’re getting our feet set, if it’s from three, then we can shoot it at a good percentage. But again, we’ve been streaky; that’s something we have to continue to work on and hopefully we can become more consistent.

Xavier had 10 assists; as a freshman point guard, he has a lot on his plate - has he impressed you with his ability as a well-rounded player?
Capel: Yeah, I’ve been really impressed with him. Since he’s gotten here, I’ve been impressed with his approach to the game, his approach to improvement, his approach to trying to learn about leadership and his desire to learn about leadership. He’s a kid that loves the gym. He loves the game. And he’s a naturally competitive guy. And when you have those qualities on top of the gifts that he has, you have a chance to be a pretty good player, and he’s becoming that. He’s becoming a pretty good player. Again, eh has a strong desire to improve. You love being around people like that and normally when you have that, positive things happen.

Really strong performance from Trey in the first game but he struggled tonight; how important is it for him to experience that early in his career?
Capel: All of our freshmen are going to go through that. It just happened to him tonight. I was impressed with how he got himself out of it. He picked up two quick fouls early in this game, so he was out of it. I think he probably thought he wasn’t going to play the rest of the half; I’m not a coach that does that. So when we put him back in, I wanted to see, can you play with two? And can you be smart but still be aggressive? I thought he did a good job of closing the half out. I subbed him very quickly in the second half but we got him back in there and I thought he did some really good things, one of which was that he had a chance to shoot a layup but he made a great pass to Peace. He made the right play and we finished it. So I think there were some really valuable learning experiences for him from this game.

You obviously weren’t here last season, but from the first time that you were able to work with this team to where you guys are now, how much has this group improved defensively and what areas in that improvement have really stood out to you?
Capel: We’ve improved a lot. We’ve worked on it a lot. That’s something that we talked about, we want to be a staple of what we do. It’s the one thing that we can control, is how hard we play, how together we are and how we defend. So it’s something that we really, really worked on and we’ve improved a great deal, to the point where, it’s pretty cool to see them be excited about defense, be excited about getting the stop, getting the charge, getting the block, getting the shot clock violation, getting the steal or just a great defensive possession where you end up getting the rebound.

We know we have a long way to go. We have a long way to go. But I like the direction that we’re headed.

You doubled them up on rebounds and had 10 or 11 guys get a rebound. When you say ‘gang-rebounding,’ I guess that’s what you’re talking about.
Capel: You know what? We don’t have a guy that - I would love for us to have a guy that I could pencil in, 10, 11, 12, I’ve had a guy like that before when I was a head coach. We don’t have that. So we have to do that by - we have to gang-rebound. Everyone has to do it. And I’ve been a part of teams that do it that way as well. We’re not going to be the biggest, we’re not going to be the most athletic, but the little things, we have to master them. We have to understand the importance of them. They have to become our habits. And that’s gang-rebounding. That’s blocking out. That’s pursuing the ball. If the ball’s on the floor or in the air, we have to figure out a way for us to get it. And we’re getting better with it. We’re certainly not where we need to be, but we’re taking steps in the right direction to get there.

Beyond technique and fundamental, as far as the defense, how much of it comes down to attitude and desire, and as a coach, how much can you do instill that in guys?
Capel: It certainly comes down to that, and I think a coach can do a lot because you can demand it. It has to be demanded. One of the first lessons my dad taught me when I got into coaching was, they’re going to get away with as much - they’re going to try to get away with as much as you allow them to. So you have to be demanding. I truly believe guys want to be coached and be coached hard. I’ve been fortunate to be around some great players - not good players, great players - as an assistant coach, as a head coach, with USA Basketball, and the thing that I’ve learned that’s been consistent about every great player is that they want to be coached hard. Our staff is not afraid to coach them hard. It doesn’t matter the talent level, it doesn’t matter - they’re going to be coached the same. They’re going to get 100% of us and it’s going to be demanded.

I said last time, this is the way it is. This is the standard. And I’m not changing. So you have to change, and if you don’t change, then there’s going to be a change. Our guys understand it. They haven’t fought us on it one time. They haven’t. Since I’ve been here, all of these young men have been very eager to learn and to get better. They’re not afraid to questions, they don’t think they know all the answers, they’ve been very receptive to everything that we have done and we need to continue to be that way.