Brother helps Dixon find shot

Pitt junior guard Jermaine Dixon struggled through the early part of the season to find his… Pitt junior guard Jermaine Dixon struggled through the early part of the season to find his outside shot. Despite displaying lock-down defense and starting at shooting guard for the Panthers, Dixon couldn’t make an impact on the offensive end. After a 1-of-7 shooting day Jan. 3 at Georgetown, including missing on all five of his 3-point attempts, Dixon searched for advice from a familiar face. Having an older brother in the NBA has its benefits. Dixon’s older brother Juan is in the midst of his seventh season in the pros and averages 8.7 points per game for his career. Juan, currently with the Washington Wizards, had some wisdom to share with his sibling after the Georgetown game. ‘[Juan] took me in the back gym at the Wizards’ stadium and was telling me what I was doing wrong with my jump shot,’ said Jermaine Dixon last week. ‘I brought that back here.’ Dixon made only 1-of-5 3-pointers in his next contest against St. John’s, but followed connecting on 4-of-6 in the next two, including a 3 for 4 effort in Pitt’s 69-63 loss at Louisville on Saturday. Dixon led all Pitt scorers with 19 points in that game, a week after notching his then-career-high of 17 against the Red Storm. Although he still is only 12 for 57 on the season from beyond the arc, the junior transfer is showing strides of improvement and confidence in his shot. ‘Ever since we got back [from Georgetown] me and Levance [Fields] and coach [Brandin] Knight are back there [shooting] every day, twice a day,’ said Dixon. ‘We just need more repetition.’ Juan did his part to help his younger brother, but also took the time to rib the 21-year-old. ‘He’s a 3-point shooter,’ said Dixon said of Juan. ‘He said, ‘Don’t worry about missing shots, but it’s getting kind of embarrassing. You’ve got to start knocking them down.” Dixon’s offensive game doesn’t solely revolve around his jumper. In recent efforts, he’s used a quick first step to veer around defenders and drive to the basket for a layup, pass to an open teammate or draw hard contact for a foul. ‘It’s what he does on the drive is more what we were talking about,’ said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon last week. ‘It’s decisions on the drive, staying on the ground, not jumping in the air on the pass and finishing strong.’ The junior guard seems to do some of his better work offensively when one of Pitt’s ‘Big Three’ of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young or Fields fails to put up spectacular numbers. With Young struggling to hit shots in his three games before Monday night’s Syracuse win, Dixon averaged more than 14 points a game while making 16 of his 26 shot attempts. ‘He’s definitely improving and getting better,’ said Jamie Dixon. ‘That’s what you want to have with guys in your program, especially first-year guys.’ Pitt’s coach also values tenacious defense, particularly from his guards, and Jermaine Dixon has fit that bill so far this season. Although Dixon only totaled four points against Syracuse in the Panthers’ 78-60 triumph Monday night, he clamped down on the Orange’s top scorer, Jonny Flynn. Flynn finished with 12 points, four less than his season average, but went only 3-of-14 from the field and misfired on all five shots behind the arc. Dixon matched up with Flynn for just about all of his 22 minutes of court time. Sunday, Dixon must deal with West Virginia’s most potent shooter, senior guard Alex Ruoff. Ruoff makes more than 37 percent of his 3-point attempts and paces the Mountaineers in scoring at 16.5 points per game. Dixon has already become Pitt’s signature defender despite spending only a year in the program, and the Panthers have experienced the highest of highs through the first three months of the season. The atmosphere of Pitt’s locker room acclimated Dixon for his effective start. ‘Everybody welcomed me with open arms,’ said Dixon. ‘Everybody has fun so it was easy to blend in, it’s just like a family. A lot of teams say that, ‘it’s a family thing,’ but everywhere’s not like that. There’s a lot of selfish people, but it’s not like that here.’