PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said Justin Champagnie was already having a really, good season. He had back-to-back 20 point, 20 rebound games against Northwestern and Gardner-Webb.
It was what he did when he came back from injury. That opened even more eyes.
Champagnie dropped 24 points and 16 rebounds in a win against Syracuse. Then scored 31 points and 14 rebounds in a win over Duke.
"It changed everything for him because of the attention," Capel said. "The people pulling at him. All those things like that, its different when you've never dealt with it. It's not like he's had to deal with this since high school of being the guy. Being the one that's the hunted. It's very different."
The attention on social media, interview requests and a huge change for his family life as Champagnie's parents started getting bombarded by agents for not just Justin, but his twin brother, Julian, who leads the Big East in scoring at 19.7 a game at St. John's.
"Everyone wants it, but it can be really exhausting of all the different things you have to deal with," Capel said. "That's something that he is learning. We can do a better job and we will do a better job of helping him. There are some adjustments he has to make."
Of course it's not just the off-the court, but adjustments teams are making in defending Champagnie on it.
Georgia Tech used 6'7", 200-pound forward Khalid Moore to cover him Sunday. The junior has a 7' 0.5" wingspan. The New York native essentially never left Champagnie's sight while playing a season-high 38 minutes.
"Justin has to get used to how teams are defending him," Capel said. "He's got to move more. He's got to cut more. He's got to cut harder. He's got to work harder to get open. Teams are being very physical and they are not leaving him."
Capel admits the team needs to do a better job of executing its offense to help his sophomore star. The Pitt head coach said Champagnie's whole world has changed in a month. Now 13 points and 6 rebounds Sunday is a disappointing day.
"He's handled it very, very well, but it's still tiring," Capel said. "I think he's done a good job. He's a really good kid. He's even-keeled. But even if you are the best of kids, it can get to you. There are a lot of lessons that people can talk to you about failure. You don't really learn how to deal with success until you have success."
"Then how do you handle success. He's doing the best he can. We have to a lot of stuff to teach him and help him along this process."
While he works through issues, Champagnie still leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding. Duke's Marvin Bagley, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Antawn Jamison, Wake Forest's Tim Duncan and Clemson's Horace Grant are the only players since 1985 to lead the ACC in scoring and rebounding.
