Toney shocked as friend stricken

Pitt guard absorbs more emotional stress in an already taxing season

Jeff Capel didn’t know it for sure, but he suspected something was off with Au’Diese Toney last Saturday.

That day, Capel’s Pitt team soundly defeated Gardner-Webb, 67-50, and Toney had scored 9 points on 2-of-8 shooting. It wasn’t a poor performance, but in a season in which the junior wing had been outstanding up to that point, there was something slightly askew. Toney, as his coach could sense, wasn’t quite himself.

After the game, Capel’s inkling proved to be correct. Earlier that day, Florida forward Keyontae Johnson had collapsed coming out of a timeout in the Gators’ game against Florida State and was rushed to a local hospital. It was news that reverberated throughout the college basketball world, but the emotional toll of it struck the Panthers’ locker room — and one player in particular — in a different, more searing way. Capel didn’t know it previously, but Johnson is one of Toney’s closest friends.

The days that have followed have been trying, tumultuous and taxing for Toney, threatening to overwhelm him with the questions of life and death with which a 21-year-old has to occasionally and unnaturally grapple. He’s managing as best as he can and has been comforted by encouraging updates about Johnson’s medical progress. But in an already difficult season that abruptly became that much more strenuous, that’s easier said than done.

“That could have happened to anybody,” Toney said Wednesday after Pitt’s win against Miami. “The simple fact that it happened to one of your relatives, your cousin, your family, it’s heartbreaking. It’s shocking. This really happened to somebody that’s close to me. You try to take your mind off of it. I use basketball for my sanctuary, to get away from my problems. Stuff like that with your family, it’s hard to try to overcome at that time.”

Toney and Johnson’s relationship goes back years. Their mothers grew up together and have maintained a longtime bond, one that extended to their children,

Associated Press photos Pitt guard Au’Diese Toney was shaken by the news that his close friend, Florida forward Keyontae Johnson, left, collapsed on the court during a game last Saturday and was hospitalized in critical condition. Since then, Johnson has been steadily improving, even communicating with Toney by FaceTime this week.