Pitt's Au'Diese Toney plays with heavy heart after loss of his grandmother

When Au’Diese Toney reached for his phone after scoring a career-high 27 points against Duke, he saw a series of texts and missed calls. Some of them puzzling.

Pitt lost 79-67 on Tuesday, but people wanted to congratulate Toney, anyway. And why not? He recorded more points than any Pitt player has scored in an ACC game this season.

Still, who were these people?

“A lot of people I never seen or heard of,” he said. “How did this person get my number? It’s been crazy, been hectic.

“A lot of people were asking me where have you been this whole time? It’s always been there.”

Like a good soldier, Toney didn’t allow the noise to affect him.

“I block everything out,” he said.

What he couldn’t shake earlier this season, however, was the loss of his grandmother, Harriet Toney-Cotton, who died this summer not long before Toney joined his teammates on their tour of Italy.

“I was going through a lot the first half of the season,” he said. “I lost my grandmother. It’s been a rough year for me. I had to come back together.

“She was like my mother.”

Through the first two months of the season, Toney averaged only 6.4 points. Then, he hurt his elbow and missed the Wake Forest and North Carolina games and played only 23 minutes against Miami.

But after his elbow healed, Toney became Pitt’s best player. Over the past six games, he has averaged 12.7 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 55.7% from the field.

He was in a such a good place against Duke — soaring around the rim, dunking and rebounding — that coach Jeff Capel never took him out of the game. He ended up hitting 11 of 19 shots and grabbing four rebounds in 40 minutes.

For the ninth time this season, he didn’t commit a turnover.

“I just felt more comfortable after the injury, playing like myself,” he said.

Junior center Terrell Brown said he has noticed a change in Toney.

“He’s more positive. He’s more engaged. He’s ready,” Brown said. “His attention to detail is very good. He’s locked in, especially on defense. We need a defensive stopper like him.”

Brown said every member of the team reached out to Toney this summer when his grandmother died.

“Even the guys who weren’t here yet were contacting him making sure he was OK,” Brown said.

Toney said he tried to treat the Duke game like any other, but it wasn’t easy. He knew the game was special to Capel, a former Duke player and assistant, so maybe that put a little more lift in Toney’s shoes.

“Coach wanted to win that game, and I wanted to win for him,” Toney said.

The loss to Duke, the No. 9 team in the nation, ended the first half of the ACC season for Pitt (13-7, 4-6). The Panthers open the second half at noon Sunday against Miami (11-9, 3-7) at Petersen Events Center.

Toney said the Duke game showed Pitt’s players and the rest of the ACC the Panthers can be competitive against any team the conference.

Down 18 with less than 14 minutes to play, Pitt trimmed the lead to three in a little more than nine minutes before the Blue Devils ended up winning by 12.

“Games like that tell you, you really can play with anybody and beat anybody,” Toney said. “(Capel) preaches to us every day at practice we can play with anybody. It’s up to us how we handle it.”

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