No denying that Pitt hasn’t had any luck with JUCOs lately. I know, personally, that I would just as soon Pitt not bother any more. JUCOs are so hit or miss given the competition and coaching questions.
That hasn’t stopped Pitt from getting a verbal from Jermaine Dixon. A 6’2″ guard for the Tallahassee Community College Eagles.
If you believe Pitt is due for a JUCO recruit to pan out for the first time since Ontario Lett, then this might be it.
If you believe in bloodlines, then this is a great recruit. Dixon is the younger brother of former Maryland great Juan Dixon — now with the Toronto Raptors. Dixon was also being recruited by K-State and Arkansas.
According to the numbers he’s the leading scorer and rebounder on the team. He’s shooting 48% overall, but only 27% on 3s. He appears to be a good free throw shooter — 78%. To this point, he’s also taken more than twice as many shots as any of his teammates. His assist to turnover numbers are not pretty 89-82. He does have 69 steals, though.
In December he was named co-NJCAA Player of the Week. He’s been the best player on this team.
He’s listed as a point guard, so I thought he was being brought in to provide more depth behind Fields and perhaps serve the transition for the following year. The thing is, he was just moved there this year.
His role has evolved from shooting guard to running the point for the Eagles. Even so, Jermaine often finds a way to demonstrate the kinds of skills that can’t be taught.
It’s not unusual for him to come off a screen to find an opening, often firing up shots that seem to be going nowhere before they suddenly rip through the net.
“That’s what I knew growing up — shoot the ball,” he said. “You just have to stay focused on the rim. If you’re focused on the rim you can get it.”
While Jermaine got better at perfecting the difficult shots with help from his brothers, he wasn’t always considered the best on his high school teams. But he wanted to be and by his senior year at Maine Central Institute he was ranked the sixth-best shooting guard in the state.
For some reason being the 6th best shooting guard in Maine isn’t totally reassuring.
This one is a head scratcher to me. Dixon seems more like a combo or shooting guard. Definitely not a pure point guard which I could better understand. The bright point is that he can shoot well off of screens and appears to be a slasher to the basket.
Yes, his assist-turnover ratio isn’t the greatest, but he’s also one of only three players on the team who have more assists than turnovers (Pitt, by comparison, has six such players). I’d chalk some of that up to coaching, so I would hope he’d improve.
This guy is leading his team in scoring, rebounding, AND assists this year. Yes, his shooting percentage isn’t the greatest, but again, all we’re looking for is someone to push Woodall and Wanamaker. Even if he never turns into a star, he’ll likely play more than Diggs or Wallace would (unless he’s downright terrible).
I’m actually not terribly against this move. I’d like to have a better player, too, but maybe we couldn’t get one.
Maybe this kid turns out fine – I don’t think cook was that awful, he worked out fine.
I still think its hard for dixon to recruit kids who want to get to the NBA cause he can’t point to any guards he’s put there…give him time. He runs a clean, successful program. How long did it take Calhoun to get to the final four? How long did it take Boeheim to win a NC?
Yeah, Dixon is terrible at getting legit players and winning in the Big East. Fields, Brown, Young, Blair, Biggs, etc. should all be playing in the Atlantic Ten or lower.
What is your basis for your comment on Dixon not getting legit BE talent?
And if duquesne ever surpasses pitt in anything sports related, we’re in trouble.
Let me get this straight. After a recruiting class that was ranked anywhere from #16 to #26 depending on the site, this is average talent?
Dixon is an “ok” coach who “coaches it up some” but doesn’t recruit Big East talent. Clearly he must only be “ok” to get the team near the top of the Big East every year with that sub-BE talent. Personally, every time I see this dual complaint leveled it boggles me. He is an average coach and an average recruiter but the results are above average. Must be the new math.
Jerel McNeal may go to the basket, but he is a 44% shooter and only 27% from outside. That compares to Benjamin, Brown and even Fields.
Villanova has recruited top classes (like last year) and then had to wait a couple years for them to develop any consistency to make a run. Ask ‘Nova fans how that roller coaster feels.
How about Marquette? All that talent in the backcourt, they haven’t done much post-Wade. The past two years they have gone out in the first round.
Please take a look at the recruiting rankings at Scout and Rivals you are putting such a high value upon. Fields was a 4-star prospect as was Wanamaker and even Biggs — who was offered by ‘Cuse and ‘Nova. Nasir Robinson had interest from both Syracuse and UConn. McGhee was plucked out of Indiana. Dodson had an offer from G-town.
I’m not satisfied with not getting past the sweet 16, but the way you paint things, Pitt is actually Providence.
Understatement of the year, Chas.
Take a closer look. They haven’t won a SINGLE ncaa game this CENTURY without Dwade. Out of the last 8 years:
Missed tourney 4 times.
3 out of the 4 years they did make it, they were upset in the first round by lower seeds.
ONCE THIS DECADE, they had Dwade. Ask their fans, suddenly they’re on par with UNC and Florida. Unreal. ONE YEAR THEY WON A TOURNEY GAME. ONE.
They are the George Mason of the big east. As a matter of fact, they have won the same exacct amount of tourney games as GMU this century. Any of you that would trade Pitt’s run for that mess is a fool. Go root for Duquesne or State Penn.
Don’t worry though. After we upset ND this week, y’all will be right back on the bandwagon. We have a young team that has been devistated by injuries. I don’t care if you’re down on their prospects this year, or pissed off cause we’re not going to accomplish what we could have if we were healthy. I feel the same way. But to throw Dixon and our team (half of which are freshman) under the bus is retarded.
Potential top 50 recruit in a few years from Pittsburgh
Sure, we could recruit all over and go back to the Jerome Lane, Charles Smith, Sean Miller, Demetrius Gore, Jason Matthews days, but go back and take a look at all the success that those teams had. Zero BET Championship Games, 1 shared Regular Season Title, Zero Sweet 16’s.
Where is the love for Dixon getting Ashton Gibbs, a former Top 20 player nationally who had slumped in the summer camps, but is now lighting up all of New Jersey (46 3’s in his past 9 games and averaging 28 PPG)? He will once again be at least a Top 100 player, if not higher.
He also has Woodall & Robinson coming in, both Top 100 players.
6 Title Games in the last 7 years with no legit BE Talent, who would have thunk it?
While top notch talent would be nice, Dixon can coach the guys he gets very well. UCLA, AZ, G-town we are not, yet. But I was a PITT in the early 90’s. Do you at all look at the history of Pitt Hoops, we are doing very we. we have had zero starters from last year for bulk of the BE season, and 7-5, thats OK by me.
Scout and rivals are good sites but, predicting High school kids wit stars is a bit of BS.
Anyway, point is, even WITH legit superstar NBA talent, things go wrong. That George Mason team you guys are talking about beat some pretty good teams on that run, including a UConn team that had a bundle of NBA talent. That loss is MUCH worse than us losing to Kent State. Rudy Gay, Hilton Armstrong, Josh Boone, Marcus Williams + Austrie, Adrien and Rashad Anderson off the bench?! And Calhoun has won a pair of national titles. Tournament success isn’t always determined on recruiting day. Jim Larranaga may be a fine coach, but I’d take Calhoun any day. Its not always determined by coaching schemes either. Sometimes a group of guys goes out against another group of guys and they throw a ball around for a while to decide things. The bottom line is that PLAYERS HAVE TO MAKE PLAYS in the tournament. Folarin Campbell, Tony Skinn, Jai Lewis….GMU’s guys made big plays in that tournament run. Ronald Ramon made a huge one against WVU, and Levance Fields made one against Duke that I’ll never forget. But if Stephen Curry or someone else makes one against us in the tournament, that’s not going to be because Jamie stupidly ignored him in recruiting. Hell, the kid is the son of an NBA 3-point specialist, and he couldn’t get a sniff from any of the major North Carolina teams, when all he wound up doing was shooting 40.8% from 3 and pouring in almost 22 a night as a Freshman. Amen to the posts above that talk about the inexact science of recruiting. Above all, this: Pitt recruits to its needs. Its not a coincidence that Ramon is a Senior and Wanamaker is a Freshman. That’s how its supposed to work. And for those complaining about height: Ramon is a 6’1″ SG, and one of the best players on a very good Pitt team. But Dixon DID upgrade that position with Wanamaker, a 6’4″ SG. Georgetown has ONE player (Hibbert, obviously) over 6’9″. Connecticut has two, Thabeet and superstud Jonathan Mandeldove, a 0.9 ppg star. Syracuse has two, but one gets 4.4 mpg. Nova has one, a 6-10 Freshman who dnp against us, but looks to be promising. Lousiville has two, one is a senior getting 7.7 minutes a night. Marquette has one, the dreaded Ousmane Barro. Man I hate that guy. Anyway, many of the guys on these teams are 6’10”. Both Diggs and McGhee are listed at 6’10”. We’re not losing ground to these teams by recruiting the wrong height. (I don’t think we’re losing ground at all.)
