PITTSBURGH — Justin Champagnie’s play left no doubt. Neither did his words.

Minutes after the Pittsburgh sophomore forward scored the last of his 31 points and grabbed the final of his 14 rebounds in a 79-73 victory over Duke inside a largely empty Petersen Events Center on Tuesday night, Champagnie provided little room for interpretation on the significance.

“It means Pitt is back,” Champagnie said. “I think that we are going to continue to keep this up, and try our best and work hard and just take everything that that’s not given to us.”

Meaning, just about everything. Jeff Capel took over a program in the middle of a freefall following Jamie Dixon’s departure in 2016 and two tumultuous, unsuccessful seasons under Kevin Stallings.

There’s been incremental progress. Capel coaxed 14 wins out of a largely overhauled roster during his first season. The Panthers inched forward to 16-17 last year. Both times, early optimism of a true breakthrough faded. Pitt lost 14 of its final 16 in 2019 and 8 of its last 9 in 2020.

This, however, feels different. The triumph over Duke — the first-ever by a former Blue Devil player over Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski — provided a glimpse of what Capel is building. The Panthers are 8-2 overall and 4-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with a schedule that looks manageable if they actually get to play it.

That’s far from a certainty. Pitt’s visit to Boston College on Saturday has been pushed back due to COVID-19 concerns in the Eagles program, the fifth time the Panthers have had a game postponed. Still, they’ll have a chance to put together their first four-game ACC winning streak since 2014 when they play at Wake Forest on Saturday instead.

And they’ll take the court with a level of confidence seldom seen since the Dixon era.