TCU mascot Superfrog and coach Jamie Dixon stand for the playing of the alma mater after the Horned Frogs beat Central Michigan in an NCAA basketball game Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Fort Worth, Texas.
TCU mascot Superfrog and coach Jamie Dixon stand for the playing of the alma mater after the Horned Frogs beat Central Michigan in an NCAA basketball game Friday, Nov. 30, 2018, in Fort Worth, Texas.
MORGANTOWN — TCU men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon has a lot of history with the Mountaineers, having faced West Virginia 37 times in his 22 years on the bench.
Dixon spent 13 seasons on the Pitt side of the Backyard BasketBrawl, during which time he led the Panthers to a 12-7 record.
He left Pitt following the 2015-16 season after leading the Panthers to their 11th NCAA tournament berth to return to his alma mater, TCU.
Since then, the Horned Frogs have gone 8-10 against WVU in nine seasons under Dixon’s direction. That includes a split in a pair of games this year, as TCU took a 65-60 victory in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb. 6, which was the 500th overall win in Dixon’s illustrious career, but then fell to the Mountaineers, 73-55, on Tuesday at the WVU Coliseum.
Between his time at Pitt and now at TCU, Dixon holds a 20-17 record against West Virginia. Those 20 wins are more than the 59-year-old coach has had against any other school, though the 17 losses are also the most he’s suffered against another team.
Dixon has many memories from those showdowns with the Mountaineers, which include games against four WVU coaches — John Beilein, Bob Huggins, Josh Eilert and now Darian DeVries.
“I thought of this the other day when I got the 500th win,†Dixon said. “They told me then my most wins had been against West Virginia. I didn’t know that, but it makes sense because we’ve usually been in the same league together and normally played each other two times [per year].
“I said to one of the referees [Tuesday night], who is a new guy in our league I think, ‘Welcome to Morgantown.’ I’ve been here so many times I can actually say that.â€
When asked to reflect on those WVU memories after Tuesday’s loss in the Coliseum, Dixon didn’t mention any particular game. Instead he recalled the thoughtfulness of Mountaineers fans in the face of a family tragedy.
His sister, Maggie Dixon, the 28-year-old, first-year coach of Army’s women’s basketball team, died suddenly in the spring of 2006 from what was described as an arrhythmic episode to her heart.
Jamie Dixon was wrapping up his third season as the coach at Pitt when his sister died. Through his family’s grief, he remembers many kind words from fans of the Panthers’ biggest rival.
“My two parents [Jim and Marge] in California said, ‘Jamie, why are so many of these notes and letter and emails coming from West Virginia?’†Dixon recalled Tuesday, his eyes glistening with tears at the thoughts of the devastation almost 19 years ago. “People in West Virginia made two people in California going through a hard time feel a little bit better. That’s what I remember about West Virginia.â€
