Pitt has a good chance of getting its best player back when the Panthers open the Legends Classic on Wednesday night.

John Hugley has not played in either of Pitt’s first two games this season, but head coach Jeff Capel said Monday that the junior center could be on the court this week.

“John has practiced; I know that’s going to be a question,” Capel said to open his press briefing Monday afternoon. “We’ll see how he responds and that will determine if he’ll be able to play on Wednesday. It’s looking like he will, but obviously we have another day of preparation to find out.”

Hugley has been out of practice since suffering a knee injury at the end of September. Capel said that the determination on his availability will be based on how the knee responds in the wake of Monday’s practice.

“As long as there’s no swelling, no pain and more so right now, what the trainer says, depending on just how he feels and things like that.”

Monday was Hugley’s first full-contact practice in more than a month, and while basketball skills are natural, conditioning has to be maintained, and Hugley will have some work to do in that department.

“He looked okay,” Capel said. “Obviously he hasn’t played basketball in six weeks, so there’s rust. Today was the first day we did five-on-five up and down, so obviously he’s not in the type of conditioning that he would be in if he had been playing, so that’s a challenge. But he did some good things.”

Hugley’s impact on the team would be significant. He was Pitt’s leader in scoring and rebounding last season, and he figured to be the key piece in the Panthers’ rotation this season, with veteran guards and skilled shooters fitting in around the presence he would provide in the middle.

Now, Pitt’s players have been practicing without Hugley and have played two games with him on the sidelines. His return will be a boost, but at the same time, there will be an adjustment as the players get used to playing with the talented junior.

“It’s an adjustment for all of us,” Capel said. “We’ve been going - we started practice on Monday the 26th of September; he got hurt that Friday. So I think that’s maybe the 30th. He’s not been with us since the 30th of September, so we’ve gotten used to playing a certain way without him. We have to adjust and then he has to adjust, and that takes time. I know that it’s going to take time.

“Obviously he gives us a guy that we can throw the basketball inside to, and he can score and he can draw a lot of attention, but how well will he be able to do that right away, because of the rust, because of the rhythm of the game, because of the timing? When you haven’t played - I mean, he just got out of the brace, I think it was last Monday, so before that, he wasn’t walking without a brace where it was locked out. So that takes time, just to get your rhythm back and get all of that stuff back.

“So we know that it’s going to take time, but he provides us with, obviously, a big body, a guy that we can throw the ball into and he can score, he can draw attention. Hopefully that gets some of our shooters a little bit more open, and then hopefully he’s able to score down there."

Pitt will open play in the Legends Classic Wednesday night with a 6 p.m. tip-off against Michigan in the Barclays Center.