Last night’s win over UNC may have been a bit of a surprise, but it also followed the recent trend of Duke’s young players proving more and more they are ready to not just compete, but thrive in college basketball and the ACC. Duke Associate Head Coach Jeff Capel addressed that growth when he joined The David Glenn Show last week.
“The main thing is that our guys are getting tougher. They’re growing up, and they’ve been forced to,” Capel said.
Capel discussed playing a game at Georgia Tech this season with Mike Krzyzewski back in Durham for health reasons. He also talked about the expectations for Grayson Allen coming into the season.
But much of the conversation revolved around the development of Duke’s freshmen and how they’ve adjusted to ACC play.
“No one comes into a Duke thinking you’re going to lose two in a row, then three in a row, then four out of five,” Capel said. “Now our guys have a better understanding of how good this league is, of how tough we have to be.”
Listen to the full interview below: