PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt sophomore forward Justin Champagnie joined Blake Griffin, who was coached by Jeff Capel at Oklahoma, and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan as the only players in the last 25 years with consecutive 20 point and 20 rebound games. Today, Champagnie named the ACC Player of the Week.
Champagnie had exactly 20 points and 20 rebounds at Northwestern and followed it at home with 24 points and 21 rebounds against Gardner-Webb.
“Coach Tim [O’Toole] always tells me, ‘go get the rebound, that’s your strong suit,” Champagnie said after the game on Saturday. “Nobody can really mess with you down there and that’s one thing you will always have on the other team.’ I just continuously do it and when I look up. I normally have like 12 rebounds, so I was just like ‘you know what, I’ going to go for 20’ and I just kept going like that.”
Champagnie averaged 22 points, 20.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals this past week and did so without committing one foul. The Brooklyn native also had a couple of blocked shots.
He’s the first Pitt player to be conference player of the week since Michael Young in November of 2016. He’s also the first player ever with 41 rebounds in a two-game span, topping the previous mark of 40 by DeJuan Blair.
Panthers open ACC play Wednesday night at Miami. Panthers pregame begins at 5:30p with top at 6p on 93.7 The Fan.