Appalachian State guard Donald Sims has a brother who is the same age as his coach.
Jason Capel is the second-youngest coach in the fraternity of NCAA Division I coaches, and he has used his youth as a strength during the Mountaineers' season so far.
"We both like Jay-Z. He's an older rapper, but he was on top when I was growing up and the same with Coach Capel," said Sims, the Southern Conference's second-leading scorer. "We listen to a lot of the same music, and we have very intriguing conversations because we both relate to the same things. It makes conversations easier."
Capel spent last year as an assistant to Buzz Peterson in his only season as a coach before taking over the program last spring at 30 years old.
"I think my youth is definitely an asset," the former North Carolina player said. "A lot of coaching is about communication and motivating players and to push the buttons to see they're capable of doing more than they think they can."
Previous ASU coaches including Peterson and Fancher were sideline veterans compared to Capel.
"Veteran is a tricky word. Are you a veteran because you stood on the sideline for so many years?" said Capel, whose father and brother, Jeff Capel III, are in the coaching business. "You can be a veteran in the sense that I'm only four or five years removed from playing pro ball."
Omar Carter visited with Capel every day last year and often visited the coach at his house. The relationship has changed a bit but not much now that Capel is the big boss.
"It was more like a friendship, not a father-and-son thing, but we're pretty close," said Carter, who earned his second SoCon player of the week award Tuesday. "We talk about everything. Like relationships -- I've got a girl down here -- things I'm going through like parking tickets and generally becoming a man.
"When I got here I had a bit of an attitude and I was overweight, but he's helped calm me down and mature. I'd go through a wall for Coach."
Capel has asked his players to do something almost as physical for team-building purposes. He's borrowed what Michigan State coach Tom Izzo calls the "war drill." Capel participated in that as a member of a college all-star team that Izzo coached.
It's a five-on-five rebounding drill in which the winning team gets the ball and does so by any means possible -- pushing, shoving, punching -- because there is no such thing as a foul.
"Leading up to our first game of the year, I stopped practice and ran the war drill for about 15 minutes," Capel said. "It's about toughness. We beat Tulsa that day in practice."
Sims and Capel have gone through a few of those drills this season. They're never scheduled. Capel calls for them when he sees fit, such as just before the Mountaineers played at Davidson. ASU won 74-66.
"Not to sound any kind of way, but a lot of it has been natural," Capel said. "The first thing I was told -- by not only my father, my brother, Coach [Bill] Gutheridge, Coach [Roy] Williams -- people I confide in is to be who you are and work your tail off every day.
"We've been thrown a lot of curveballs this year, which, if you're a first-year coach or veteran coach, are hard to plan for."
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