Sanford's Mikey Dixon a college sensation at Quinnipiac

HAMDEN, Conn. – Mikey Dixon’s impact has been immediate and, the way his college basketball coach views it, has a chance to be lasting and memorable.

In his first season at Quinnipiac University, Dixon is getting noticed.

Last season’s Delaware high school Player of the Year at Sanford is the nation’s eighth-leading freshman scorer, with 16.7 points per game. He has also been the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's Rookie of the Week four times, including three straight January acknowledgments.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Dixon said Monday night.

Dixon’s debut has been so dazzling that by the time he is done, Bobcats coach Tom Moore said, the 6-foot-2 guard has a chance to be long remembered at Quinnipiac, which has never made the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.

“Very few young men get the opportunity do that,” Moore said after the Bobcats’ 84-75 MAAC loss to visiting Siena at the spiffy TD Bank Sports Arena. “I was at UConn for 13 years and we had some guys who made a couple hundred million dollars in the NBA that weren’t able to do that.

“He does have the chance, the talent and the ability to impact this program to that degree. A lot of hard work and effort and consistency in front of him, but he wants to be great. He just has to stay the course, keep getting stronger and tougher and keep working on his craft. He has a chance to be pretty special.”

As a senior, Dixon was a landslide selection as state Player of the Year after averaging 26 points per game and shooting 57.4 percent while sparking Sanford to the 2016 state title. Dixon scored 21 points in a 38-30 state semifinal win over Mount Pleasant and 20 in the 39-32 championship victory over St. Georges.

His stellar senior year capped a career in which Dixon sprouted from a 5-foot-8 freshman and actually grew three inches just his junior and senior years, when he was a two-time first-team All-State pick.

That made Dixon somewhat of a late bloomer and kept him off the recruiting radar of some higher-level Division I programs. Moore and his staff spotted him and showed strong interest early, which is why Dixon eventually chose Quinnipiac over MAAC rival Rider, as well as Robert Morris, Fairfield and Canisius.

He has stepped in at Quinnipiac and been a sensation, though it didn’t happen immediately. Dixon didn’t start until the Bobcats’ 12th game, at Brown on Dec. 29.

“I thought he could be really good but he’s also surprised me,” said 10th-year coach Moore, “because I never thought he’d be this consistent. I didn’t think he’d be able to handle the volume of minutes and responsibility right now. It’s amazing.

“I took him from the mid-teens in minutes, to the mid-20s, to mid-30s in about a week-and-a-half, two-week period, and he didn’t miss a beat. He’s really efficient.”

Moore was concerned that Dixon’s slight build -- he’s just 160 pounds -- may make the adjustment to college basketball difficult, considering its physical nature. That seemed warranted Monday night, when Siena lined up with 6-7, 6-8 and 6-10 starters, all seniors, plus a senior point guard in Marquis Wright.

But Dixon’s first act was to actually leap to the rim with 6-8, 234-pound Brett Bisping and block his shot 2½ minutes into the game. Dixon’s first basket came on a jumper from the top of the key while a Siena player bumped into him from behind, though no foul was called.

“That’s the man right there,” uttered one Bobcats fan sitting in the front row while admiring Dixon’s exploits.

Eventually, the Bobcats (8-14 overall, 5-7 MAAC) were overmatched – Siena outrebounded them 52-27 – but Dixon shared team-high honors with fellow freshman guard Peter Kiss by scoring 19 points.

Dixon has not felt his stature to be a disadvantage, especially considering his quickness, as he showed Monday. His success has built a confidence that has allowed him to play better.

“The biggest thing for me is playing hard all the time,” Dixon said. “Coach talks to me about not letting my offense dictate my defense. That’s the biggest thing for me, and that’ll come more as I mature in my game, but I think I’m just playing with a motor all the time. That’s my biggest challenge. If I can do that, I’ll be fine.”

Dixon’s season has been highlighted by the 29 points he scored, including a pair of 3-pointers in the final 75 seconds, to boost the Bobcats past Canisius 95-90 on Jan. 20 at home. The 29 points were a school Division I freshman record (Quinnipiac moved up from Division II in 1998-99).

His season has also featured a 27-point effort when Quinnipiac beat Iona 97-91, Dixon’s go-ahead shot with 22 seconds left in an 81-78 victory at Niagara and the school Division I record 34 straight free throws he converted.

The New Castle resident came to college quite prepared to excel, he said, from the coaching he received at Sanford from Stan Waterman, the former Howard High and University of Delaware point guard, his AAU coaches, and his father, Lawrence, a Delcastle High graduate who played at Hampton University.

Dixon is now averaging 2.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 28.6 minutes per game (he’s played at least 32 minutes in 10 of the last 11). He’s also shooting 48.0 percent from the field, 38.9 percent on 3-pointers and a clutch 86.8 percent at the foul line.

“I don’t want to say I’m surprised,” said Dixon, a communications major, of his immediate success. “But I didn’t think I’d be almost averaging 17 points. I knew I could score the ball but I just wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’m just playing basketball at the end of the day.”

With Kiss averaging 13.2 points per game, Quinnipiac is one of only six schools nationally with two freshmen averaging at least 12 points per game and one of only five with two freshman guards averaging 10 points per game.

The future is bright, and Dixon is the beacon.

“Tom’s probably got the two best freshmen in the league in Kiss and Dixon,” Siena coach Jimmy Patsos said Monday. “They’re really talented, they can score. Don’t be fooled by those two because they’re thin. They’re young. They’re not 27-year-old freshmen that are out there in the country. They’re real freshmen.

“And I can already look at them. It’s like horse racing. You know a good two-year-old. They’re both going to get stronger, they’ve got good frames, they’re both good players. But they’ve got skills. They can make shots. They made tough shots tonight. They’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in this league.”

Dixon is enjoying the present but hopes it’s the foundation for better days ahead.

“Every day [Moore] pushes me in practice and he puts a lot in my hands,” Dixon said, “but he believes in me so a lot of responsibility comes with that. My end goal is to be a pro when I leave here and he talks to me every day about just going hard in practice so when my four years are done I can keep my basketball career going. To do that, you’ve got to bring it every day.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @kevintresolini.