MIAMI -- “I mean, just gotta stay poised and just be a good teammate and play for the team.”
Justin Champagnie acts like this is no big deal.
That quote up there was Champagnie's response when I asked him how he — a freshman facing North Carolina for the first time, on the road, no less — handled his emotions. Champagnie filled up the stat sheet for 22 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals, but bigger than that, he sank four of five three-pointers in a comeback second half that helped lead Pitt to a 73-65 victory.
That's after going 0 for 2 from deep — ice cold — in the first half, one game after shooting 1 for 6 from deep in the team's loss to Wake Forest at home.
“We came out of the locker room, and coach was like, ‘Just step up and knock down a great shot,'" Champagnie said. "And once the first one went in, I was just like, ‘Oh. Keep going.’”
Yeah, just keep going. It's no big deal, after all, to help propel your team to its first ACC road victory in nearly three full years, the last coming Feb. 8, 2017, at Boston College.
Last season, it was Trey McGowens and Xavier Johnson, two freshmen sensations, giving life to an upstart Pitt men's basketball program. Johnson averaged 15.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4 rebounds per game last season, while McGowens added 11.6 points, 2 assists and 3 rebounds per contest.
This season, it's Champagnie — 11.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1 steal per game — providing that extra layer of offense to the team. The squad still revolves around Johnson and McGowens, no doubt.
"Coach told us as the game goes on, you have to keep making the right plays," Johnson was saying when asked about opposing defenses locking onto himself and McGowens. "Because their scouting report and other teams’ scouting reports, it’s [to] stop me and Trey. We gotta know that, me and Trey gotta know that, and we just gotta trust others to make shots.”
However, it's all glued together by players like Champagnie, who has risen to the task, averaging 17 points per game in the team's last four, a 3-1 stretch, while contributing hot shooting from beyond the arc. That threat from deep — combined with the same from Ryan Murphy — makes everybody's life easier.
"Our guys need Xavier and Trey to create for them," Jeff Capel was saying at his Friday press conference at Petersen Events Center. " ... They have to understand that they need Justin knocking down shots or finishing plays inside. They need Murphy knocking down shots."
Beyond the shooting, though, did you catch that other part from Capel on Champagnie in that quote? Watch just one Pitt basketball game, and that "finishing plays inside" part stands out even more than the outside shooting.
Champagnie showcases a strong understanding of opposing defenses and a knack for exploiting weaknesses. You'll see something like this almost every time he touches the court:
It's a great look and dish from McGowens, but it's also excellent recognition from Champagnie, who senses the defense collapsing and slices along the baseline for the easy finish. It's the right play — and it's just one of many examples of Champagnie playing older than his driver's license will have you believe thus far in the 2019-20 season.
He'll shrug it off, even when those plays result in, you know, a win over North Carolina on the road, snapping a two-year streak in the process.
“I mean, we try not to do that, because anything can happen in the game," Champagnie said when I asked him if he took the time to soak it all in at the Dean Smith Center. "We felt like we came in here and just put on a good show and took the ‘W.'"
Modest as No. 11 may be, others recognize the impact Champagnie has on this team — including the one who matters most: Capel.
"It's impressive," Capel said when I asked him about Champagnie's basketball IQ. "He's had some really great moments as a freshman so far this season, and the thing that we are trying to help him to do is to become consistently good. It also helps that his teammates have found him in those spots and they look for him and his teammates have a lot of confidence in him in those spots."
Johnson put it another way:
“He’s big-time," Johnson said of Champagnie after the win in Chapel Hill. "I see that every day, honestly. He works hard. He gets in the gym late at night and he shoots those same shots. He’s a good kid, and he’s going to get better.”
Perhaps most exciting of all for Pitt is this: Champagnie's not done. Nobody knows his ceiling because nobody's seen his ceiling yet. He's fresh off a knee injury suffered in September that was originally thought to be a season-ending ACL tear, and while he appears to be 100 percent recovered from that, there's little doubt it stunted his growth and progression early on in the season.
With that behind him and with some big-time performances in the bag, the question now becomes: Just how good can he be?
"We want to continue to help him develop and continue to help him grow and learn more about the game, learn more about the preparation, the work that it takes to become a really, really good player," Capel was saying. "He has a chance to do that, but the really, really good players are consistently good, and that's the next step for him is to ... try to find an understanding of how to do that."
MORE FROM CAPEL
• Capel discussed his two-year contract extension, saying he's "incredibly grateful" for it. To him, it signals that everybody believes in the program and is committed to its growth, but bigger than that, he thinks it could impact incoming recruits, as well.
"I do think for potential recruits, for parents of potential recruits, it does signal that, that this place is committed," Capel said.
That's major, as I noted previously regarding five-star 2022 guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, who has verbally committed to Pitt.
• Worried about Pitt lingering in that North Carolina win a little too long? Yeah, they did that after Florida State, losing to Nicholls State the next time out, so it's a legitimate concern. I asked Capel about that:
• Earlier this season, Capel shared a clip from Rocky with Johnson to help him bounce out of a funk. After the Wake Forest loss, Johnson told us Capel sent him a clip from The Lion King. When I asked Capel about this trend, he assured me he doesn't keep a running list in his phone, but he does have a process here.
"I don't sit and I don't have a bunch of stuff staved in my phone," Capel said. "But if I see something or I think of something that I think would be appropriate or could help someone on our team to help them to understand something maybe a little bit differently or that's the message that you're trying to get across, periodically I'll share it with an individual or the team."
• Au'Diese Toney, who has missed the past two games with an elbow injury, practiced on Friday and is expected to be 100 percent for Pitt's upcoming road contest at the University of Miami.
• Speaking of that one, I'll be on the scene at the Watsco Center for all the coverage.
