Justin Champagnie declared for the NBA Draft back in May, just a few months after earning the honors of being the first Pitt Panther to be named First Team All-ACC in program history.
Despite stating that he had been told by an unnamed NBA team that he would be drafted, Champagnie went unselected among the 60 draftees in the two rounds of the NBA Draft Thursday night.
He was signed to a two-way deal with the Toronto Raptors in the hours after the NBA Draft, per Jake Weingarten:
The Toronto Raptors have signed Pitt’s Justin Champagnie to a two-way deal, he told @Stockrisers. Was one of many prospects I expected to get drafted this evening, could be a great UDFA option for the Raps.
— Jake (@jakeweingarten) July 30, 2021
Champagnie exploded onto the scene of Pitt basketball during his 2019-2020 freshman season. He became the first freshman since Charles Smith in 1984-1985, who as the third overall pick of the 1988 NBA Draft is the highest selected Panther, to lead the program in scoring and rebounding.
During the 2020-2021 season, Champagnie led the team again in both points and rebounds with averages of 18 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. He was the only ACC player to average a double-double in the 2020-2021 season and shined bright in the Panthers' run to an 8-2 start.
He also became just the third major conference player in 25 years to record back-to-back games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds, putting him in rarified air with Caleb Swanigan and another former player under Jeff Capel, Blake Griffin.
Despite being the ACC's second-leading scorer behind Duke's Matthew Hurt and the conference's leading rebounder, and those efforts earned him an invite to the NBA Scouting Combine, where he posted a double-double in competition with other competing NBA prospects. But those were still not enough to earn him a selection in the fast-paced NBA Draft.
Champagnie may have indeed been told he was supposed to be selected by an NBA team, but as our own Ramon Foster revealed in his own NFL Draft story, draft seasons in any sport can be "a season of lies."
Champagnie wasn't alone in ACC stars who weren't selected, as the conference's leading scorer in Hurt from Duke was also unselected, as well as Louisville's leading scorer Carlik Jones and Virginia's leading scorer Sam Hauser.
That leaves Cameron Johnson as the most recent Pitt Panther to be selected as a first round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, albeit after him transferring to North Carolina for his final NCAA season during the Kevin Stallings era. Johnson became an important role player for the Phoenix Suns in their run the NBA Finals before losing to Giannis Antetekumpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Lamar Patterson remains the most recent Pitt basketball player to be selected in the NBA Draft while still with the program when he was picked in the second round of the 2014 NBA Draft by the Bucks before being traded to the Atlanta Hawks. Steven Adams also remains as the program's most recent first round selection when he was picked by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2013 NBA Draft.
However, being signed to the Raptors makes Champagnie the first Panther recruited to the basketball program after the Jamie Dixon era.
