Nobody expected Justin Champagnie to be this good, this fast.
Nobody except Champagnie himself, that is.
“I didn’t really surprise myself," Champagnie was telling me of his freshman season at Pitt in a phone interview.
When Champagnie delivers such a statement, it's easy to see it on the surface as cocky or pompous. With him, though, it's anything but. He's humble and motivated, backed by family, including his mom, his father Ranford (who won the 1996 National Championship as a soccer player at St. John's) and his twin brother Julian, who averaged 9.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game as a freshman at St. John's last year.
“That’s my support system, is my family," Champagnie was telling me. "When anything’s going wrong, I always — obviously, I always talk to the coaches — but my first outlet is to my parents and my brother. Those are the main people that keep me going. It’s good knowing you have that family behind you no matter what.”
Like Julian, Justin had a fine debut season at the Division-I level, leading the Panthers in scoring at 12.7 points per game and in rebounding, posting a team-best seven rebounds per contest. As the season stretched on, it became obvious: Champagnie can play.
That, however, was much less obvious before the 18-year-old Champagnie made his collegiate debut, battling a knee injury over the summer before coming off the bench in Pitt's 63-61 season-opening victory over Florida State at Petersen Events Center. At that time, Champagnie was an unknown — a 6-foot-6 (though he would later tell me he's actually 6-foot-7), versatile forward with a fat question mark plastered to his ceiling. He was a raw three-star prospect, ranked 248th nationally by 247Sports.com's composite rankings, the lowest in Pitt's freshman class. Gerald Drumgoole, for comparison, was a four-star recruit based on those same composite rankings, coming in at 117 overall. Drumgoole got the start against Florida State, but Champagnie logged more minutes (23 vs. 20), more points (eight vs. zero), more rebounds (six vs. one), more ... everything. It was a sign of things to come.
"I knew I always had the game to play at this level," Champagnie said. "I feel like I could’ve been better in some aspects of the game this year, but I just feel like I got a chance to come out here and just show that I [adapted] pretty well.”
From there, Champagnie stuffed stat sheets and trophy cases alike, winning ACC Freshman of the Week three times, National Freshman of the Week once and posting two of Pitt's five 30-point-plus performances by a freshman in the program's history. His career-high 31 points against Wake Forest was a Pitt ACC Tournament scoring record and the sixth-highest mark by a freshman in ACC Tournament play. Ever. He and Trey McGowens are the only two freshmen in Pitt history to log multiple 30-point games, each doing so twice. His 419 total points put him fourth all-time for a freshman in Pitt's history books, and watching Champagnie play, it all looked so easy. It wasn't forced and it wasn't based on pure athleticism or pure shooting or anything in particular. It flowed and it came naturally, showcasing his confidence and poise as a year-one player in the ACC.
All of it can all be traced back to that home game against the Seminoles.
“I think after the first game I kind of felt comfortable — only because my teammates really made me feel like I belonged there and I came in, you know, I had eight points in my first game against Florida State, and they told me I really helped them win the game," Champagnie said. "So I just felt like after that game, that gave me confidence and made me feel like I could play at this level. So after that, it just went off.”
See what I mean about Champagnie's humility? He immediately deflected to his teammates helping build that confidence, which should come to the surprise of no one, because when I asked Champagnie down in Greensboro about the highlight of his season, he said:
Not the 30-point games. Not the awards. Not the four three-pointers and 22 total points in a comeback win on the road in Chapel Hill, N.C., to defeat the University of North Carolina.
“I mean, just getting to stay with my teammates,” Champagnie said. “I love all of them, especially the seniors. They played a big impact on my game and who I am as a person. I look up to them. I think that’s just a highlight of my season, just being with them and getting to know everybody on a personal level. These are my brothers for life, so that’s the best part of my season.”
There are those family roots again, coming to the surface and sprawling across Champagnie's foundation.
Pitt fans should be thankful for them too, not just because they help shape the player and the person Champagnie's become but because they help zero his focus on the present. After a stellar freshman campaign — stop me if you've heard this one before — many fans and pundits wondered if Champagnie would declare for the NBA Draft.
He put that storyline to rest with a single Instagram post, captioned, "I'll be back."
To hear Champagnie tell it, though, this decision was mostly straightforward — mostly. He just had to tune out the noise to see clearly.
"I mean, everybody tries to tell you what to do and what not to do," Champagnie said. "[They’ll say] ‘Oh, try to declare’ and whatnot, but I just feel like I need to come back to work on my skills, and I feel like this program will help me get to the next level."
Wait, Champagnie's focusing on himself and himself alone? That can't be right.
And it isn't. He took a breath and continued.
"And I also want to win. I want to win before anything happens to this program.”
Full circle, right back to the Champagnie we know.
The situation, for a young, budding star like Champagnie is layered. He has to be selfish to reach that next level. Scouts and analysts want to see the 30-point outbursts. They want more stuff like this to review:
I know this because back in January, when Pitt faced Syracuse at Carrier Dome, losing 69-61, I had the pleasure of sitting next to an NBA scout for one of the league's most lauded and successful franchises. Naturally, I had to pick his brain about his thoughts on Pitt's roster. McGowens and Xavier Johnson were mentioned first, but he was quick to add Champagnie's name to the list, saying his skill set, in particular, intrigues him at the next level. Champagnie put up a team-best 14 points on an efficient 5-for-6 effort from the field in that one, adding nine rebounds, an assist and a steal with no turnovers.
Throughout the game, as Champagnie diced Syracuse's 2-3 zone when nobody else on the Panthers roster could, the scout leaned over and made various comments about Champagnie's skills and his projection at the next level. He even scribbled notes and told me he was going to be sure to track Pitt's season moving forward ... and check in on St. John's to see if Julian projected similarly.
There's just one giant red flag where Champagnie's NBA-readiness is concerned: He's gotta shoot better. Not from the paint, where he works well getting to the rim and finishing with dunks and reverse layups, but from deep. The NBA three-point line is over a foot-and-a-half deeper than it is in college — 23 feet, nine inches vs. 22 feet, 1-and-three-quarters inches in college. And Champagnie did not exactly light it up from there as a freshman, attempting 126 shots from three and making just 33 of them (26.2 percent). He did have his moments, fueling Pitt's comeback on the road against North Carolina with his three and doing this to poor Canisius:
In all, Champagnie made five of his six attempts from three in that game, but that clip didn't carry throughout the season. At the next level, it's a must for a player of his size and skill set. Think Kawhi Leonard, a 6-foot-7 small forward who, like Champagnie, plays an all-around crafty and cerebral game with surprising, out-of-nowhere athleticism. Leonard has blossomed into one of the NBA's finest, but in college, he spent two seasons at San Diego State, shooting 20.5 percent from three in Year 1 then taking a leap up to 29.1 percent in Year 2 before declaring for the NBA Draft. That marked Leonard's biggest weakness coming out of college, and for good reason. He was, essentially, an athletic power forward trapped in a small forward's body.
Think he noticed?
As a pro, Leonard shot 37.6 percent from three as a rookie with the Spurs and now sits right around there, 38.1 percent, for his nine-year career.
The league averages 33.9 three-point attempts per game in 2019-20 — and that figure has steadily grown over the past decade, increasing every year since 2010-11. Then, teams attempted 18.0 per game. So the three isn't going anywhere, and Champagnie will need to continue to hone his touch from beyond the arc if he wants to make a serious run at the next level.
But fact is, right now, nobody — not Champagnie, not Capel, not any expert on the planet — knows exactly how good he can be in Year 2 and beyond. And that fact excites Champagnie to the max.
“The first thing I want to do is just get back in the gym and just start working on my craft, make sure I’m better next year," Champagnie said. "But I mean, you’re always trying to get better individually but when next year comes it’s about being better together as a team.”
Dude just can't help himself. Literally every time the spotlight shines upon him, he soaks it in for a moment then redirects it elsewhere, either to his teammates, his family or his coaches. The divisions between them, then, become increasingly blurred. Coaches and teammates become family, and when that happens, it's a lock. Champagnie trusts you now, and he's fully committed to the cause.
"When I first got here and committed and stuff and started the process, I kind of felt like [Capel is] always there for us," Champagnie said. "It’s kind of like an uncle. Any time we needed him to be there for us no matter what it is, he’s always asking, and it was just a great experience playing for him this year. I just can’t wait to get back to it next year.”
For Champagnie, it's tough to reflect or to analyze the past. Pitt finished its 2019-20 regular season at 15-16 and riding a seven-game losing streak, collapsing after sitting a promising 14-8 at the beginning of February. Still, the team improved from its 14-19 mark in 2018-19, and they also doubled their conference wins (six vs. three the previous season). Progress was made — just not enough. To Champagnie, the future is infinitely brighter and infinitely more appealing, both for him personally and for the Panthers as a whole.
"I feel like next year, with the group we have coming in, we can do way better than we did this year," Champagnie was saying. "If we just stay focused and poised — everything comes down to [the fact that] you gotta be focused on one thing, and that’s just winning for Pitt. And that’s enough. I feel like with the group we have coming in next year, we got a lot of versatile pieces, so we can make a very big impact on the league.”
That group will include the likes of four-star, 6-foot-10 power forward/center John Hugley, who was recently named first-team All-Ohio by Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association after averaging 24 points, 13.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists as a senior at Lyndhurst, Ohio's Brush High School.
And it'll also include a sophomore Champagnie, who feels he still has so much to show.
“I feel like I need to work on ball handling and just creating for myself," Champagnie said. "I always talk to coach and he always tells me that’s a big part of the game nowadays. You gotta be able to put the ball on the deck and create. Toward the end of the year, I did it a little bit more for myself, but I just feel like if I work on that consistently and implement that into my game, the sky’s the limit I feel.”
He's not the only one who feels that way, either. Here was Capel on Champagnie, way back in November:
“We think he’s a talented kid, but we want more from him, and we’re going to be hard on him because we think he can do more,” Capel said. “And at times it looks like he’s not going as hard, and part of that is because he’s a gifted athlete. But, again, there are some habits that we have to continue to work with him on. He’s played well the last two games since he started — he’s really played well all year — but there’s a few more levels that we think he can get to, and we’re going to be on him to get there.”
Champagnie gets there, and Pitt will reach a "few more levels," too.
