I am sad about this team again
- Thread starter iMissTheOldDayss
- Start date
I am too.
I'm also sad because I see a step back next year. With Champ starting to hit his threes, I think @BballinsiderfromPitt is right. With two injuries and All-American consideration I can't see Champ coming back.
Unless we land some major recruits you gotta hope Collier and Jeffress make big leaps.
I'm also sad because I see a step back next year. With Champ starting to hit his threes, I think @BballinsiderfromPitt is right. With two injuries and All-American consideration I can't see Champ coming back.
Unless we land some major recruits you gotta hope Collier and Jeffress make big leaps.
Only hole you can pick in his game is you don’t see him creating his own shot a lot. But if you’re a team picking in the 2nd round, you don’t want a guy who thinks he needs to create his own shot to score.
Could be way off but at 20/12 and 41 percent from 3, what other holes offensively are in his game?
Yeah. I'm thinking of that Sam Young vs. Champ thread and I would definitely say Champ can't create yet. My question is whether or not the pros of potentially learning to create would outweigh the cons of scouts poking more holes in his game?
Yeah, I keep on forgetting about the knee injuries. If he is going to get drafted, he pretty much has to go.
If you declare, even without an agent, it makes almost zero sense to come back with his numbers. It would be nearly impossible just to DUPLICATE his success from this year, let alone improve upon it.
I’d also add that him pump faking, driving and dunking left makes it seem like he can get his own shot. We just don’t seem to give him much of a chance to.
For a silver lining -
We didn’t play well and still competed with unc
So there’s that
This is my worry, too. I'm a big proponent of players getting paid if they can, and so I wish Champ all the best if he is projected to get drafted. But without him, Pitt is back to aimlessly passing the ball around the perimeter unless Jeffrees and Collier emerge or Pitt somehow lands a stud one and done.
Champagnie is going to be 1st Team All-ACC and maybe POY. How many players like that have come back the last 10 years? I'd guess 0. That said, Champagnie doesn't have a game conducive to the NBA. He's going to have to play the 2 or 3 in the NBA and he has no handle. I think he needs to come back and spend a year at the 3. Move Toney to the 2.
I know Im always the one saying there will be an exodus but if Champagnie leaves, wouldn't you think Toney would go play his last season for Kentucky or Kansas or whoever?
If we have a lineup of Johnson, Horton, Jeffress, Collier, Coulibaly, that could be a 5-15 type of team
Well, he’s clearly not a lottery talent... so I think most of this is just going to come down to him and his priorities. Get $ ASAP? Go. Like Pitt and college and want to continue to work on your game to be a more complete player when you enter the league? Stay.
My HUGE hangup with him is that his college production everyone loves isn’t a guarantee to translate. And in his time here, I’ve never gotten the idea that he’s fully bought into to doing the little things. He coasts on defense a lot, late closing out on 3s and struggles staying in front of athletic wings when they drive.
As an NBA GM, that’s not really attractive to me. I’m just not sure who he’s going to guard in the NBA. Not laterally quick enough for good 3s and not tall enough for 4s. We saw last night he struggled defending UNC’s 4s.
He just strikes me as someone who’s better at being the star rather than a role player... if Toney could shoot like Champ is right now, I’d take him over Champ if I was an NBA GM. Put him on Harden and tell him to only shoot if he has an open 3 and he’ll do that...
Champ’s role in the NBA? Not quite sure.
Which is why I think he’s going to be one of those guys who does really really well overseas as a stud somewhere.
I don’t disagree with any part of your assessment of his game. Unfortunately the production can’t get much better and while he is still young there is the hope he can improve upon that stuff. 2 more years same production without Pro training 24/7 seems like a waste.
My biggest concern is the play of X. We need him to be good and he’s been pretty bad lately. A decent x wins us the wake game and a good x might have helped us steal one last night. But when we have bad x we are very average and can lose to anyone.
To that point, with 3:11 remaining UNC led by just 5 at 70-65. Pitt had whittled a 16 point deficit to a 2 possession game.
Then came - maybe unexpectedly? - the shot of the game. Caleb Love, who to that point was 2-9 from the field (0-4 from 3) took a long 3 very early in the shot clock. And of course with 2:59 left, he made it. Pushed the lead up to 8. To me that was the back-breaker. Doubt ol Roy wanted that shot, that quick, from that guy.
But sometimes the wrong guy takes the shot at the RIGHT time. 🤷♂️
I have a good feeling about Collier...do think he will make the significant leap...seems both athletic and possesses good basketball IQ in the limited time I've seen him. Think Jeffress being very good is a given....let's hope!!!
Quite honestly, when he fired that shot up I was happy when it left his hand. Thought there was a good chance it would miss (no guarantees Pitt would have secured the def rebound though 😏). Had it missed, and had Pitt gotten the ball down just 5 with almost 3 minutes left, who knows? It kinda looked until that shot went down that maybe Pitt had the Heels on their heels a bit.
There were surely enough things for Pitt followers to be concerned about again last night. But they did compete and were in it until very late, FWIW. Even if it maybe didn’t seem that way.
Umm, what about his defense? You won't see the floor in the NBA if you cannot guard your man. Would he be able to guard a 2? A 3? Think of who all he'd guard at those spots (as well as who would guard him). You saw a glimpse last night of what would happen if he were to guard a 4. Love Justin to death, but he has a long way to go on his D before any NBA team would use a draft pick on him.
Do you ever contribute anything meaningful?
Having coached and trained a recent 1st round pick who had this exact knock on him that teams picked on him on defense, every scout that talked to me about him said much easier to teach and get better on defense in the pros than against inferior players they can get away with that stuff in college. His defense will be of no concern from everything I’ve heard.
So anyone who doesn’t make positive posts 100% of the time is a dope? You’re every bit the troll as the people you claim to call out.
Cmon man I thought you knew college basketball? Luka Garza just last year was a consensus 1st team All American and BIG POY. Returned because he may not even have been drafted, almost certainly won’t go in 1st round after this season either.
OK, good pull. Has an ACC POY ever returned?
Champagnie is an interesting case because he is essentially a 6'6 "big" with no handle. He will have to play SG/SF in the NBA
Ah, like noted 6’6 SG/SF Draymond Green.
the NBA has point guards, wings and bigs. There is no 1-5. Spurs are the perfect example. Most games they essentially start 3 traditional “2’s” because positionless basketball is what the NBA is mostly about.
and this is all for a guy trying to be the 8th-13th man.
Yea but Im saying he's going to have to play the wing in the NBA but has no handle and cannot create his own shot from the wing.
He should come back, move to the 3, Toney to the 2, and get AJ Bramah from RMU to play the 4. That's a Sweet 16 team
You’re way too stuck on antiquated positions but Toney isn’t close to a traditional 2.
JC could get unlimited training and a paycheck as a 2nd rounder or come back ruin his nba shot and get 2 hours of skill work with coaches a week.
very easy decision for JC.
Does he even make a roster? Sam Young barely hung on for a couple years and played at an AA level as a wing on a #1 seed. Champagnie is an undersized 4 on an NIT team who has to play wing for the 1st time in his life....at the pro level
Yes. Completely different league than 11 years ago
I think his best shot is to be an undersized 4. Lamar Stevens is on a 2 way and had a similar skillset to Champagnie. He developed more of a perimeter game but wasnt as dominant of a rebounder. That might be the best comp for him.
I mean for sure, think he would at least get a 2 way and they make 450K so maybe he takes that.
I don't have the time or energy to do an analysis, but I feel like players more often hurt themselves by coming back (at least in hoops) for that one more year.
The example I always think of is Mitch McGary.
McGary and Adams had nearly identical numbers, both averaging about 7 and 6. Adams had an OK tournament. McGary helped propel Michigan to the NCAA finals and put up 25 and 14 against KANSAS! I am confident he would have been drafted ahead of Adams.
Instead, McGary chose to come back and had injuries and off court trouble. He ended up going outside the lottery and backed up Adams. He's now a pro bowler. Meanwhile, Adams signed a 2-year, $35M extension.
The example I always think of is Mitch McGary.
McGary and Adams had nearly identical numbers, both averaging about 7 and 6. Adams had an OK tournament. McGary helped propel Michigan to the NCAA finals and put up 25 and 14 against KANSAS! I am confident he would have been drafted ahead of Adams.
Instead, McGary chose to come back and had injuries and off court trouble. He ended up going outside the lottery and backed up Adams. He's now a pro bowler. Meanwhile, Adams signed a 2-year, $35M extension.
And he deserved to make the team almost as much as Maurkice Pouncey!
Huh? An actual what now? Hm. Who knew?
Nevermind.
Every coach says if your name is in the draft or yOure an AA you gotta go bro. Strike while the iron is hot. Again, you get TWO hours of instruction a week in the off-season. You ain’t getting better in college.
I remember posting McGary should leave after his breakout NCAAT. That's a little different though because he was going to play the same position in the NBA as college. Champagnie has to move to the wing.
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