Former Pitt G Dior Johnson Commits to New School Out of Portal

Former Pitt basketball point guard Dior Johnson is onto his fourth college.

Johnson committed to Tarleton State on Tuesday after spending months in the transfer portal. Tarleton State joined the Division One ranks in 2020-21, and has been coached by Billy Gillespie since. Last year, Gillespie’s team went 12-20 and 7-9 in the WAC.

Missed this the other day, but this is awesome for Tarleton State. Dior Johnson was so good at the JUCO level two years ago. Didn’t play much at UCF, but he’ll have the ball often and put up big numbers in the WAC. Big one for Tarleton State. https://t.co/R4iulsZXJ7

— Sean Paul (@SeanPaulCBB) June 11, 2025

Johnson spent this past season at UCF in the Big 12, where he averaged 2.9 points per game as a sophomore. Johnson played in 35 games and played 8.5 minutes per game.

Johnson never appeared in a game for Pitt. When he committed to Pitt before the 2023-24 season, Johnson was the highest-rated recruit in Jeff Capel’s tenure at Pitt. However, prior to his freshman season, 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.

Pitt Freshman Dior Johnson Pleads Guilty to Two Misdemeanors

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 then went to Clarendon Junior College and was the No. 1 scorer in NJCAA junior college basketball. Johnson earned NJCAA All-American honors.