DIXON NAMED HEAD COACH

Pitt finally found a coach willing to call Pittsburgh home.

The school decided to stay… Pitt finally found a coach willing to call Pittsburgh home.

The school decided to stay within the program, announcing the hiring of Jamie Dixon as the new men’s basketball head coach Tuesday, filling the position 13 days after Ben Howland accepted the same job at UCLA.

“The last four years, our basketball program has reached heights some people once considered impossible,” interim athletics director Marc Boehm said at a press conference introducing Dixon. “In our new head coach, we have a person who helped light that championship torch [and] more importantly, we have a person who will make that torch burn brighter and also take us to new heights.”

“I would like to thank Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and Marc Boehm for giving me the opportunity to continue the University of Pittsburgh’s quest to be the best basketball program in the Big East Conference,” Dixon said. “Working together the last four years we have accomplished some exciting things. I’m equally excited about what we can achieve together in the future.”

Working as the associate head coach under Howland, Dixon played a crucial role in the development of the team’s playing philosophy along with serving as Howland’s top recruiter.

Despite having no prior head coaching experience, Boehm felt that Dixon was an excellent fit for the position.

“All along, Jamie was right there at the top of the list,” he said. “Ben Howland called me several times during the search process and he told me that [I]’d be making a big mistake if [I] didn’t hire Jamie Dixon.”

Even with Howland’s support, it appeared that Dixon was not on the top of Pitt’s list, as the school held discussions with Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser about filling the vacancy.

But Prosser, who is from the Pittsburgh area, decided to stay at Wake Forest, signing a 10-year contract extension Friday after nearly taking the Pitt job earlier in the week.

Knowing that Pitt was looking in other directions, Dixon decided to put all of his efforts into landing the job.

Up for the head coaching positions at Wright State and Illinois State, Dixon informed both programs that his main focus was on becoming the head coach at Pitt.

“Once it became clear coach Howland was going to be moving to UCLA, I really concentrated all of my efforts on landing this job,” Dixon said. “I knew in my mind what I wanted to do and set my goal to become the coach at the University of Pittsburgh.”

Dixon wasn’t the only one hoping that he would be the one to fill Howland’s shoes.

“It’s great, I think they got the best guy,” Levon Kendall said. “He knows the players already. A lot of the guys have respect for him.”

“This is easier because we don’t have to make any changes,” Carl Krauser added. “We’re used to his style, he knows the system and we can stay comfortable.”

In addition to making the players happy, the decision to appoint Dixon as the head coach should keep the Panthers from losing any of their recruits for next season. Top recruits Chris Taft and Aaron Gray had recently said they would consider going somewhere other than Pitt if a coach from outside the system was hired.

“I appreciate the recruits having confidence in my abilities,” Dixon said. “Those are great kids and they’re going to be tremendous assets to our program.”

Dixon also tried to quiet any concern there might have been about him wanting to return home to the west coast, much like Howland did in leaving for UCLA.

“I was 17 when I went off to college at Texas Christian, and to be honest, I haven’t lived in Los Angeles for any length of time since then,” he said. “I can’t think of any other place I’d rather be, and my wife feels the same way. We had our first son here. If I had to call a place home, this would probably be home.”