Coach Dixon made a public appearance last night at the Mon Valley Panther Club Chapter Banquet.
Dixon, spoke about the recent death of his 28-year-old sister Army basketball coach Maggie Dixon, and losing two of his assistants Joe Lombardy [sp] and Barry Rohrssen, who took head coaching jobs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Manhattan College, respectively.
“I received tens [sic] of thousands of e-mails and letters about my sister,” he said. “I was very proud of her and love talking about her. She was a special girl. Tomorrow is her birthday so it will be a tough day for our family.”
Dixon wasn’t upset about losing two of his aides.
“I want guys who want to be head coaches,” he said. “Where they came from being Pitt is what it’s all about. They both landed great jobs in their respective leagues.”
Coach Dixon is not permitted to talk about recruiting so there was no mention of Eugene Harvey or Luis Colon. There is a little more than a week left in this signing period and no word on either at this time as to where they are really leaning.
Colon was supposed to visit K-State this past weekend, but instead will be going this weekend.
Colon instead took a trip to Amherst to see UMass. Suddenly it isn’t just Pitt, Duquesne and K-State any longer. UConn and Jim Calhoun have also joined the chase.
“I told (Travis Ford) we have them from the highest program to the lowest program,” [Colon’s AAU Coach Art] Alvarez said. “Look at a guy like Barea, he could have played anywhere in the country and he picked Northeastern.
“With Colon, we’re going to find the right place, the right fit for him,” he said. “Just because UConn and these other big schools are recruiting him doesn’t mean he’s going to go there. We’re not going to go to the bigger school, we’re going to go to the better fit.”
Alvarez said Colon would like to play right away, and that’s one of the reasons he is visiting UMass this weekend.
His playing time at Pitt or UConn would be very contingent on the big men at those schools staying in the draft. UMass has 7′ Luke Bonner eligible this season.
