Dior Johnson Leaves Pitt Men’s Basketball Program

On Friday, Pitt basketball announced that guard Dior Johnson is no longer attending the University of Pittsburgh.

Johnson, a former five-star recruit, never played a regular season game in a Pitt uniform. Prior to his freshman season last year, he was arrested and subsequently suspended indefinitely by the team after he was involved in a domestic abuse incident in Oakland. Johnson eventually plead guilty to two charges: strangulation and simple assault.

He originally faced charges of one felony count of aggravated assault, one felony count of strangulation, one misdemeanor count of unlawful restraint, one misdemeanor count of simple assault and one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment.

The judge for the case dropped four charges, false imprisonment, unlawful restraint, witness intimidation and aggravated assault, but held one charge of simple assault (misdemeanor) and one charge of strangulation (felony) on Oct. 20, 2022.

Johnson plead guilty to those two charges on Dec. 9, 2022, with the judge lessening the strangulation charge to a misdemeanor ordering Johnson to serve a year of probation.

With his charges dropped from felonies to misdemeanors, Pitt chose to bring him back to practice, but redshirted him. He was also involved with the Pitt international tour in Spain this summer. 

Dior Johnson is a 6-foot-3 guard out of Saugerties, New York. At the time of his commitment, he was Jeff Capel’s highest-ranked recruit while at Pitt.

The Panthers’ back court is now even thinner, as freshman Jaland Lowe and Carlton Carrington are joined by transfer Ishmael Leggett to lead the guard room. Pitt now has two scholarships open for this upcoming season.