Men’s basketball: Jermaine Dixon slowly returning to form

Six months might seem like a long time for some. But for Pitt senior guard Jermaine Dixon, it… Six months might seem like a long time for some. But for Pitt senior guard Jermaine Dixon, it must have felt like an eternity.

Dixon broke a bone in his foot in June, an injury that kept him sidelined for half a year, until he finally returned to the lineup last Tuesday against Indiana.

He was held scoreless in 12 minutes against the Hoosiers, as Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon is slowly working him back into game shape. Dixon stressed that for even the best players, it takes some time to get back to where one was prior to injury.

“For right now, he’s not the same player that you’ve seen before,” Jamie Dixon said. “But I know he’s going to be right in a couple weeks.”

Despite returning less than a week ago, Dixon already showed that he’s starting to come around, scoring his first points of the season in Pitt’s 71-59 win over Kent State on Saturday.

He finished the game with five points in 14 minutes, highlighted by a three-point play with 4:28 left in the second half when he converted a layup while drawing a foul.

“We saw a different Jermaine today,” Dixon said, referring to his continued improvement.

While the scoring from Dixon is nice, his defense is his calling card as he is often assigned to guard the opposing team’s best perimeter player.

“He’s a great defensive player,” guard Ashton Gibbs said. “When he’s in, you don’t lose anything defensively, and he can knock down shots as well.”

While Jermaine Dixon admits his foot’s still a bit sore, causing him to sit out Friday’s practice, it has time to heal this week until Saturday’s matchup against Mount Saint Mary’s.

Dixon was set to begin playing again a little more than a month ago, but suffered a setback when another Pitt player stepped on his foot in practice, causing him to miss even more time than expected.

Now that he’s back, he’s been coming off the bench, but he will return to the starting lineup eventually.

He believes that his time on the bench has helped him gain a good perspective of the game, so when he comes in, he can step right in and perform.

“You can see a lot from the bench,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter whether I start or not.”

With Big East play coming up, the team will need a healthy — or at least partially healthy — Dixon to return to his old ways.

If his current pace of improvement is any indication, No. 24 should look like he did wearing No. 3 all of last season.