Pitt's Jeff Capel says Justin Champagnie could return from knee injury sooner than expected

A day after informing his team for the fourth time this season that a game had been postponed, Pitt coach Jeff Capel had some good news Monday morning.

He expects Justin Champagnie to return from his knee injury before the original six-to-eight week timetable announced after he injured the lateral collateral ligament more than three weeks ago Dec. 20.

“I still don’t know exactly when (Champagnie’s return) will be,” Capel said. “But he’s progressing very, very well.

“He’s not practicing (with the team in contact drills). He’s able do some stuff individually. We’re starting to integrate him back. Just shooting (in non-contact drills), he’s able to do a little bit of that.”

Teammate Ithiel Horton told the ACC Network last week that Champagnie was, actually, dunking in practice.

“He’s fighting us every day,” Capel said. “He wants to play right now. It’s the same as it was his freshman year (last season) when we thought we possibly lost him for the season. The very next week he’s telling us he can go. I’d rather have a guy like that than a guy who’s hesitant.”

But Capel won’t accelerate Champagnie’s return until he’s sure he’s ready.

“We want to be very careful. We’re not going to put him back on the court until we believe he’s completely healthy,” he said.

The good news — if you can call postponements good news — is that Champagnie has missed only two games. In a non-covid season, he would have missed six. Only one of the four has been rescheduled (Notre Dame, Jan. 30), and Capel’s new timeline would allow Champagnie to play in that game, possibly sooner (assuming no further complications).

Nonetheless, Capel said his team was “crushed” when the Georgia Tech game, scheduled for Wednesday in Atlanta, was postponed. As a man who’s been around basketball all his life, he said this season has not been fun.

“I hurt for them,” he said of his players. “We’ve played pretty well and that’s great, but going into these arenas with no fans, there’s no energy. It’s just empty.

“Every day waiting on test results, seeing who you can have in practice. Can you practice? Who can be available? It’s not a lot of fun.”

Through covid-related protocols, Pitt wouldn’t have had a full team for the Georgia Tech game, Capel said. Pitt hasn’t played since last Wednesday, a 63-60 victory at Syracuse, when John Hugley, Nike Sibande and Noah Collier were unavailable. The next scheduled game is Saturday against Syracuse at Petersen Events Center.

Back-to-back games against the same opponent almost never happens in the regular season, but Capel understands the rules are different while playing in a pandemic.

He said three games a week wouldn’t bother him, which is what might need to happen for Pitt to play a full, 20-game ACC schedule.

What bothers him is the nine-day break between games that was preceded by another of 14 days over the holidays. At this time last season, Pitt (6-2, 2-1 ACC) had played 15 games.

“That’s something that I don’t like, not having competition,” said Capel, who said the team is still able to practice.

“It’s going to be a challenge for everyone who’s had games postponed. It could be a challenge to make them all up. The league will try to do it. We’ll try to do it.

“Every week, you’ll see who’s available to play. If you have to play three games in a week and that’s what it takes and it works out medically with the testing, I’m fine with that.”

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