Pitt's Au'Diese Toney leaves under 'mutual agreement,' 2nd starter to depart in 2 days

The destruction of Jeff Capel’s first Pitt recruiting class is complete, and it took barely one day to complete the job.

Au’Diese Toney, who was Pitt’s best defender and second-leading scorer and rebounder, has left the men’s basketball program under what Capel described as a “mutual agreement.”

There are now no remaining members of the three-man recruiting class Capel brought to Pitt shortly after taking the job in 2018. Toney joins guards Xavier Johnson, who left Wednesday, and Trey McGowens, who transferred to Nebraska after last season. Johnson and Toney, who are two of Pitt’s three leading scorers, also plan to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

Toney, a junior guard averaging 14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists, started 69 of his 79 appearances in nearly three seasons. He has missed two games with an injury this season, including the most recent game against Florida State, but he started 16 of Pitt’s 18.

Toney scored in double-figures 12 times this season, including three games with 20 or more points. He scored 10 or more points 35 times in three seasons and concludes his Pitt career with 763 points, 423 rebounds and 80 steals.

Speaking Thursday night on KDKA-FM, Capel acknowledged the short-term damage to the team’s depth, but he believes his program can survive.

“The long term, I don’t see any effects, to be honest with you,” he said. “That’s not saying anything to diminish them.”

His point: It’s time to get back to work with those who want to stay in the fight.

“We have to recruit. We have to get guys. We have to continue to develop the young men who are in our program,” he said. “That’s what we plan to do. I look at it as it gives us two more scholarships to go out and get guys who really want to be here, be a part of what we’re doing, along with the guys we have.”

Previously, Capel said in statements the players left under a “mutual agreement.”

“We wish those two well,” he said, noting Toney has a concussion and might have missed the rest of the season, anyway. “They’re both good kids. This has been an incredibly difficult year with everything that’s going on with the pandemic, with mental health, the pressures (on young people), the things that they feel.

“I hope people don’t judge these kids, both on and off the court, for decisions they make. There are a lot of factors that go into these decisions.”

He did not elaborate on those factors.

The next question Pitt fans and others throughout the ACC will ask — and Capel must answer — is what does the future hold for the Pitt program? He admitted he inherited “a dumpster fire” after taking over a team that was 0-19 in the ACC during former coach Kevin Stallings’ last season (2017-18).

Capel made small strides in Pitt’s previous two seasons, winning three conference games in 2018-19 and six last year. But the Panthers (9-9, 5-8) are in the midst of their third consecutive late-season slump. Pitt has lost seven of its past eight games and 23 of 29 in three seasons in February and March.

There are no verbal commitments in Pitt’s class of 2021 after Capel brought in five last year. Of the five freshman, only point guard Femi Odukale plays significant minutes.

Freshman forward John Hugley, a highly regarded high school big man who was the 2020 Ohio Mr. Basketball runner-up, was suspended after seven games and his future is in question. Hugley is facing three felony charges in connection to a stolen-car incident last summer. A preliminary hearing has been rescheduled for April 8.

The departures of Johnson and Toney leave ACC Player of the Year candidate Justin Champagnie to carry a heavy load through the final three regular-season games, starting Sunday at N.C. State, and the ACC Tournament.

Champagnie leads the ACC in scoring (18.8 points per game) and rebounding (11.4), but he is considered an NBA Draft prospect this year. If he decides to enter the draft, Pitt’s personnel problems will continue to grow.

Champagnie, also one of five finalists for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award, is one of two current starters from Pitt’s four-man 2019 recruiting class.

Abdoul Karim Coulibaly has started 17 games while averaging 5.4 points and 4.1 rebounds. Coulibaly is Pitt’s fourth-leading rebounder behind Champagnie, Toney and Hugley. Of the other two, Ryan Murphy, a transfer from New Mexico Junior College, spent only one season at Pitt and now plays at Duquesne. Gerald Drumgoole has appeared in only seven games this season.

Toney likely will be replaced by senior Nike Sibande, a transfer from Miami (Ohio) who started the Florida State game and scored 12 points, with seven rebounds in 36 minutes.

With Toney missing the game, Capel used three players off his bench, and only Odukale made an impact. Odukale will replace Johnson at point guard, further weakening Pitt’s bench.

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