Dixon’s status with Pitt up in the air

After a 72-66 loss to 13th-seeded Bradley ended the Pitt basketball team’s season on Sunday,… After a 72-66 loss to 13th-seeded Bradley ended the Pitt basketball team’s season on Sunday, uncertainty can now begin to settle in as head coach Jamie Dixon’s future with the Panthers remains uncertain.

Almost immediately after the team’s second-round exit from the NCAA Tournament, University officials put together and submitted a proposal to renegotiate Dixon’s contract, one that the third-year head coach is still considering, according to an article in yesterday’s Post-Gazette.

Dixon currently has four years remaining on his current contract that averages an annual payout of $600,000, putting him below half of the 16 head coaches in the new-look Big East.

The urgency to get a deal done has heightened since Dixon’s name has come up as a possible candidate to fill various head-coaching vacancies, most notably Arizona State. Dixon has numerous ties to the west and was an assistant coach at Northern Arizona University under current UCLA and former Pitt head coach Ben Howland, whom Dixon succeeded as the Panthers’ head coach in 2003.

ASU’s Athletic Director, Lisa Love, is anticipated to ask Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long for permission to interview Dixon this week, something Long would neither confirm nor deny, the Post-Gazette article reports. Dixon told the Post-Gazette that he hasn’t heard from the Sun Devils yet, nor has he had time to fully consider Pitt’s latest proposal, given the team’s Sunday game and his going out of town to recruit this week.

“I haven’t had time to look at it,” he said. “We’ve been in discussions. That’s all I can really say about it.”

One of the younger coaches in the country, Dixon has already achieved remarkable success. At age 40, he has guided the team to a school record for wins in a season (31 back in 2003-2004), two Big East Championship game appearances (2004 and 2006) and to three straight NCAA Tournaments.

The 2004 Big East Coach of the Year is 76-22 in his three seasons at Pitt.