Au’Diese Toney transfers from Pitt to Arkansas

Former Pitt standout Au’Diese Toney entered the transfer portal on Feb. 25, and on Thursday, he announced that he would continue his collegiate career at Arkansas. The revelation marked the conclusion of a search for a new school that stretched over a month in length and saw dozens of high-major programs from across the country pursue Toney.

After a solid showing at Pitt, the 6’6”, 210-pound guard-forward drew interest from Arizona, Cincinnati, Florida, Georgia, Iowa State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Providence, Seton Hall, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UConn, Vanderbilt, Wichita State and Wisconsin in addition to Arkansas and others. However, Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman, who has relied heavily on transfer talent and made the Elite Eight this season, ultimately had the best pitch.

Toney was the subject of some great expectations at Pitt as a former four-star recruit, and it took him some time to live up to his billing. But he developed at a steady pace and nearly doubled his scoring output in his three years on Pitt’s campus. In his last season with the Panthers, Toney came up with 14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. That was up from 7.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game in his freshman year.

The move brings Toney closer to home, as he hails from Huntsville, Alabama, two states over from Arkansas. In addition, Toney’s decision will allow him to finish his collegiate career on a team that should contend for an SEC title next season and could once again make noise in March. In contrast, Pitt has not reached the NCAA tournament since 2016 and might not have next year even if Jeff Capel had retained the majority of the team’s top talent.

At this point, Toney is one of five players who have transferred out of Pitt in a year that has seen the transfer portal unusually replete with talent. The other four are Terrell Brown, Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, Gerald Drumgoole and Xavier Johnson. Of the five, only Brown and Toney have come to decisions about their next destinations, with Brown heading to San Diego. Pitt has yet to bring in any replacements.