At 7-5 overall and 0-2 in ACC play, Wake Forest is, on paper, one of the easiest outs in the ACC.
But don't tell that to Jeff Capel. His Panthers open conference play at home Saturday, Jan. 4, against Wake Forest, and he expects a significant challenge at that noon tipoff.
"They beat Xavier, and Xavier was a top-15 team in the country," Capel was saying Thursday during a press conference at Petersen Events Center. "So yeah, they have experienced guards, experienced players. You look up and down their roster, it's seniors, it's a grad transfer, it's a graduate senior, it's juniors, and so they have experience and they've been in big moments. And again, they beat Xavier earlier this year. They were right there with Arizona. So they've kind of been a little bit Jekyll and Hyde to be honest with you. When you watch them, at times they've been really, really good. And at times they've not been so good. My hope is that we help make them not good on Saturday. But they are a team that can compete with anyone."
Beyond this praise of his upcoming opponent, Capel shared his thoughts on the state of the ACC as a whole this season, the national perception of his Panthers, and much more.
Read some highlights from the press conference right here, or watch the full video, embedded below.
How do you view the state of the ACC this year compared to past years? I still think it's really good. I think Duke's one of the best teams in the country. I think Louisville's one of the best teams in the country. I think Florida State's as good as anyone and can beat anyone. I think why maybe it seems like it's down is because you have a couple of teams that traditionally are very good that maybe haven't played as well ...
I still think it's a really good league. Obviously, we have very good players, very good coaches. And it's going to be a dog fight every night ... I still think it's as good a league [as any], the best league in the country, but I do think we have a couple of elite teams. I don't think anybody's playing better than Duke in college basketball right now. Then Louisville, you know, they were ranked No. 1. We still haven't talked about Virginia, who's still good. I mean, it's just taking them a little bit longer to deal with some of the adversity in losing the guys that they've lost. But they're still going to defend the heck out of ya, and they know how to win.
Do you feel Pitt is gaining respect? I don't know. I can't tell you what other people think about us, nor do I really care to be honest with you. We just want to play hard. We have to earn respect. Respect is not given. We have to earn it, and how you earn stuff is you have to invest in it. You have to work hard every day. You have to show up every day with the mindset to get better, and that's what we're trying to do. That's what we try to concentrate and focus on with our program."
How do you prepare for a team that is so volatile? We take care of us. We try to concentrate on us. We try to concentrate on the things that we think are the strengths of our team and try to work on some of the weaknesses. But we don't spend a lot of time on that. We try to game plan for what we think are the important things for each particular game. And it's not as much about Wake Forest. It's about us, and that's what we're trying to concentrate on.
Wake Forest is one of the higher-tempo teams in the league thus far. What challenges does that present? It's one of the big keys for the game. It's two things: Number one, we can't turn the ball over. Because for them, when that happens, it's like a jailbreak — they are out, and they're going. And then we have to be able to set our defense on a missed shot. We have to have balance. And then we have to get back, and it has to be a collective effort of five guys getting back. We have to build a wall, we have to point and talk. Our communication has to be on point, and we have to make them a halfcourt team, because they are, I think the next two games we'll play (Wake Forest and North Carolina) are two of the faster-paced teams, definitely in our conference, but really in the country.
Seven-foot Wake Forest center Olivier Sarr has taken a big step this year. What challenges does he present? Big-time challenges. He's confident. He's played very well. He was starting, he got hurt in a game, I think he was in the concussion protocol for a little bit. I anticipate him starting against us. He's close to a double-double. I would say a double-double. I think the rebounds are 9.5, to me that's 10. But he can score, he's confident. Obviously, he's going to be on the offensive glass. That's obviously a big challenge for us. We need to step up to the plate. But he's really, really gotten better. And that's not a surprise, because his coach [Danny Manning] is one of the better big guys that ever played the game on the college level.
Watch Capel's full press conference right here:
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