What a week.
After Xavier Johnson entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, Pitt announced that Au'Diese Toney would do the same Thursday. That's two Jeff Capel recruits out the door in a stunning 24-hour span. The departures comes as the Panthers are reeling from another late-season slide and they raise questions about what's wrong inside the program and who might be next to go.
Johnson's exit was somewhat foreseeable. His rate of turnovers, personal fouls, technical fouls and lack of improvement had put him at odds with Capel. But Toney's decision was a surprise.
Toney was second on the team in scoring and rebounding behind Justin Champagnie with 14.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. He also was the Panthers' best wing defender -- a true asset to the program.
Capel, whose team has lost seven of its last eight games, did not speak to the media Thursday. It's unclear if he will address the departures between now and Sunday's game against North Carolina State. The university released a statement Thursday with a comment from the coach.
“We have come to the mutual agreement that Au’Diese will be leaving the Pitt Men’s Basketball program effective immediately,” said Capel. “We appreciate his efforts the past three seasons in our program and wish him well as he looks to continue to grow on and off the court.”
This also means that of Capel's first recruiting class of 2018, only Curtis Aiken remains. Since last March, Pitt has seen Trey McGowens, Toney and Johnson all enter the transfer portal.
Last season appeared as if Capel had the Panthers on the right trajectory to resurrect the program following the Kevin Stallings era. With Johnson, Toney, McGowens, and Champagnie in the lineup, Pitt finished with a 16-17 record -- the best since 2016-17.
Even with the departure of McGowens, Pitt opened this season 8-2, 4-1 in the ACC. Champagnie proudly declared, 'Pitt's back,' after the Panthers took down Duke in January. Supporters hoped the program was returning to the days of Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon, who coached the Panthers to 13 NCAA tournament appearances in 15 seasons.
Barring a miraculous run through the ACC Tournament, Pitt will miss the NCAA tournament for a fifth consecutive year. The Panthers are 9-9 and 5-8 in the conference.
Femi Odukale is the apparent replacement for Johnson having evolved into the team's sixth man.. But William Jeffress has yet to show he's as ready to replace Toney. Jeffress is averaging two points and 2.4 rebounds.
Nike Sibande could be part of Pitt's temporary answer to the problem as he can retain a year of eligibility and has expressed the desire to stick around to play next year. But Pitt needs answers that could last more than a single year.
Where there was reason to see Capel's forging a path for his team's growth with Odukale at point guard, it is more difficult to make that case without Toney. One of the biggest challenges of the season for Capel was finding team leadership with only Toney, Johnson and Champagnie as returning starters from last season with experience.
Even with a collapse this season, there would still be the hope that with his leaders carrying the team next year that Capel could better develop his younger recruits like Odukale, Jeffress, Noah Collier and others. But now with Toney and Johnson set to transfer, Capel may have to start over.
And what's worse, their decisions to transfer do not help the prospect of Champagnie returning for a third season. Although he hinted that he would return for his junior year just last week, these developments could easily make his return to Pitt a much less attractive decision compared to going to the NBA Draft. He continues to accrue honors as he was announced as a finalist for the 2021 Karl Malone award on Thursday.
If that does happen, the direness of Capel's situation with Pitt could go from bad to much worse.