PITTSBURGH — Pitt will not only be without head coach Jeff Capel, they’ll also be without their two leading scorers.
The Pitt basketball program has announced that both Justin Champagnie and Au’Diese Toney will be sidelined with leg injuries suffered over the weekend in practice.
Champagnie will miss the next six to eight weeks with a knee injury, while Toney is listed as day-to-day with a right ankle injury.
In their first six games, Champagnie was averaging 17.8 points and 12.3 rebounds. He has scored in double figures in each of Pitt’s games, including two 20 point/20 rebound games.
Toney was averaging 16.2 points, 5 rebounds and shooting 52.5% from the field.
Pitt will likely lean on freshman wing William Jeffress to step up from the bench role he carved out early this season. Jeffress is sixth on the team in minutes played.
Newly eligible guard Nike Sibande could help out in a three-guard lineup and freshman wing Noah Collier could also be leaned on to provide additional minutes on the wing. The Panthers could also play a bigger lineup, dressing two of the forward rotation of Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, Terrell Brown and John Hugley at the same time.
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.
