“I’m the son of a coach,” says Capel, whose dad is the main man at Old Dominion. “Coach gets most of the blame. Coach always gets the blame.”

Guthridge, most say, actually sought out the blame to deflect criticism from the mysterious struggles of his talented players who underachieved for months.

“If we won, he praised us,” says Tar Heel center Brendan Haywood. “If we lost, he said it was his fault.”

Tar Heel fans eagerly took Guthridge at his word. They hit him harder than two-sport ace Julius Peppers hits ballcarriers.

“It was the easy thing for fans to do,” said Capel. “You heard it, you read it, you saw it on the Internet. Players got trashed. Mostly, Coach got trashed. Some true fans stuck with us. Most didn’t. We found out who our real friends were.”

Literally dozens of questions were peppered at various Tar Heels during Saturday’s press conferences. There was a common theme. Everyone wanted to know what Guthridge is doing differently in the NCAA Tournament where the Tar Heels are 3-0 heading into Sunday’s Elite Eight game with Tulsa. What’s Mr. Bill doing now that he should have done a lot earlier?

It seems that, yes, the Tar Heels have started practicing a little longer and a little harder the past two weeks. And the longer and more frequent media timeouts are keeping the thin Heels fresher. But the reality is that little has changed. Guthridge is still Guthridge. He hasn’t altered his philosophy overnight. There have been no drastic moves.

“The talent that we have up and down the line has been there from Day One,” says Capel. “That should be obvious to everyone. We’ve got all kinds of high school All-Americans. We can score on anyone. It was the little things we weren’t doing. Moving without the ball, boxing out, stuff like that.”

And now the Heels, a lowly No. 8 seed in the South Region, are doing them?

“ That’s right,” says Capel. “The little things cost us 13 games. Coach told us what to do, but we just didn’t do it. What people should realize is that Coach can’t box out. Coach can’t get a hand up on the 3-point shooters. That’s our job.”

And now, the Heels are on the mother of all missions to see that the embattled Guthridge keeps his job.

Capel most of all. Against Tennessee in Friday’s regional semifinal victory, he literally did it all. The Heels’ small forward, he brought the ball up the floor. He made a key 3-pointer late in the first half. He hit the boards when he had to play power forward with the big guys in foul trouble.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Capel. “You know, fulfilling those point guard dreams. Yeah, I’m versatile. That’s my biggest asset.”

Capel’s dad, the coach, taught him those myriad skills once upon a time.

Capel was a chubby, unathletic youngster, who used to hate basketball because he didn’t think he’d ever be as good in hoops as his talented older brother, Jeff, the future Duke star who was the talk of the town.

But Jason’s body changed. He put down his baseball and football and his dad helped make him a basketball player. And Dad still offers advice.

“He just tells me to play hard and have fun,” says Capel, who needs one more win to equal his brother’s number of trips to the Final Four. “He’s here in Texas and it was great to see him in Alabama last week.”

All of which explains why Capel has a permanent soft spot for coaches.