Capel not looking at Duke fill-in as audition

But success without Coach K would help

Jeff Capel isn’t looking at it as an audition, which makes sense for an interim coach taking over a championship-caliber team during a pivotal point of the college basketball season. But, even so, Capel is auditioning for one of the most coveted jobs in all of college sports: the head basketball coaching position at Duke whenever Mike Krzyzewski decides to step down.

Capel can frame it whichever way he’d like — that it’s still Krzyzewski’s team, Coach K is coming back in a few weeks and the Hall of Fame coach will still, of course, provide input while he recovers from lower back surgery scheduled for Friday.

But let’s face it. Capel, who has been Krzyzewski’s right-hand man the past few years at Duke and with USA Basketball, is a strong candidate to succeed the legendary coach. His case would be strengthened by a successful stint the next couple of weeks.

It won’t necessarily be easy; the Blue Devils are only now at full strength after a rash of early season injuries and Grayson Allen’s one-game suspension. They’re still trying to figure out who they are as a team. That’s not always as easy as it seems, even with a star-studded freshman class and veterans who won a national title just two years ago.

“I’m approaching it one game at a time,” Capel said Thursday during a media teleconference. “I haven’t really thought about the long term or anything like that. My focus is on our guys. It’s a lot on our guys; they’ve been through a lot this year already with injuries and a suspension. It’s still early January, and now you’re dealing with this thing. I’m focused on our guys and putting them in a position to succeed.”

Capel, who also acted as Duke’s interim coach for one game last season because of an illness, has head-coaching experience, at Oklahoma (where he was 83-69) and Virginia Commonwealth (7941). He’s a terrific recruiter, a huge reason the Blue Devils have landed so many elite players in the past five years. And he thinks he has grown considerably as a coach since returning to Duke and learning from Krzyzewski. He plans on leaning on his head coach throughout this month as well, though the best piece of advice Krzyzewski can give has already been given: Trust your instincts.

Certainly, there will be a mix of Capel running the team the way he feels most comfortable and the way Krzyzewski normally does things. But there’s a plan and deep trust in place, too.

That is part of the reason Capel is considered a candidate to replace Krzyzewski, who will turn 70 next month. Krzyzewski hasn’t expressed a desire to retire, but that doesn’t mean the question of who will succeed him stops being asked.

“I haven’t thought about it because I’ve never imagined the day of Coach not being the head coach at Duke,” said Capel, who played at Duke from 1993 to ’97. “Since I started watching basketball and really understanding basketball, he’s the only coach I’ve known at Duke. ... The guy knows more basketball than I will ever forget.

“I want to be a head coach again one day, but it’s not something that I’m in a hurry to do. If the right opportunity comes and they want me, I’ll come. Right now, my focus is solely on our team and helping it be successful.”

Which, in turn, would help him be successful — something that can only help him when one of the most coveted jobs in the sport opens up, whenever that day comes.