Broken TV Becomes Result of Justin Champagnie's Love for Pitt
PITTSBURGH -- It was mid-March and the preliminary round of the NCAA Tournament was just beginning - on its first night of games, in fact - and the Pitt Panthers were locked in a furious battle with Mississippi State at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio, competing for the right to face Iowa State in the round of 64 later that week.
Meanwhile, former Pitt forward Justin Champagnie was in a hotel room near Henderson, Nevada, watching the game with his teammate on the Souix Falls Skyforce of the NBA G-League, D.J. Stewart - a former Bulldog - ahead of a game against the Ignite the following day. As the game went down to the wire, with Blake Hinson and Jamarius Burton hitting clutch shots to deliver a 60-59 win for the Panthers, Champagnie demonstrated love for his former team perhaps too aggressively.
"I actually broke my TV in the hotel [during] the game they went to the NCAA Tournament," Champagnie said after a workout at the Petersen Events Center. "Seriously, I was super happy. ... Broke the whole TV because I had a teammate who played there and I broke the whole TV."
He spent just two seasons in Pittsburgh but said he will be eternally tied to the city and the program. Champagnie was not a particularly heralded recruit but left as a First-Team All-ACC selection.
Upon leaving school early, worked his way up from the G-League to play for the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics, the latter of which kept him on the roster for their playoff run to the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. He said head coach Jeff Capel was "one of the most important people" in his circle when he weighed turning pro.
"A lot of college coaches try to keep players back and he was like ‘Go with your play and make it your best one. I’m always going to support you and I think you can play anywhere you go,’" Champagnie said. "So he was a big part of giving me the confidence to take my chance and go do it."
Champagnie's Pitt teams achieved some bright moments but more often than not, muddled through some rough times. He had hoped to play in big games like the ones the 2022-23 Panthers did while he was in school, but is just as happy to watch this new generation of players, whom he has close relationships with, succeed and live through them.
After leaving school, he comes back to Pittsburgh frequently to work out, visit with his old mentors and spend time with Panthers past and present.
Recently, he's been overlapping his own offseason workouts with The Zoo Crew, a collection of former Pitt players preparing for a run at the $1 million prize awaiting the winner of The Basketball Tournament, which begins early next week. He still has pride in the university and sees it as a home, filled with people he now considers family.
"[Jeff Capel is] like an uncle. I consider him family," Champagnie said. "All of them - [Tim O’Toole], Jeff, Coach Brown - everyone who took a chance on me, a kid from Brooklyn, when nobody really wanted to. I always go to their house, we have barbeques, hang out. I love their little ones. I love it here."
And breaking a television while watching them pull off one of the most significant wins in recent history for this program was simply a reflection of that love. The television, unfortunately, came out on the wrong end of that love.
"When I watch them, I kind of imagine myself back at school," Champagnie said. "And I know that when I played, I played with passion because Pitt was it for me. So watching them play and show they can compete at the highest level, just means a lot and watching them do it and have fun and win makes it even better."
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