It’s Unanimous, Dixon’s The One

At times, Kyle Dixon showed graphic flashes of what was going on down deep inside him, like some kind of X-rays of his emotions.

At his junior college state championship game, for instance, Dixon doubled his scoring average with 32 points, hit five 3-pointers, distributed nine assists and made six steals.

“He simply willed his team to a championship,” said Mark Few, Gonzaga assistant coach. “It was incredible.”

Dixon’s first action at Gonzaga, in an alumni game at the start of last season, provided another defining episode.

Quick and athletic Geoff Goss, the point guard who had led the Bulldogs to a conference title and an NIT appearance, stole the ball from the newcomer, drove to the hoop and laid it up over the front of the rim.

But with alarming explosiveness, Dixon closed on Goss, elevated above the rim, and swatted the ball into the stands.

At that moment, the GU staff knew what it had: a fiercely competitive animal.

“He’s made so many big, big baskets for us, at crucial times, that it’s amazing,” GU coach Dan Fitzgerald said of his senior, two-time All-West Coast Conference point guard.

Yes, there was Dixon - now a dismal 56 percent free-throw shooter - calmly netting two from the line with no time on the clock to push Washington State into overtime.

And there was Dixon, sinking a difficult leaner in heavy traffic to give GU a lead over Portland with :06 on the clock.

And there was Dixon, nearly every time the shot clock wound down to single digits - a dozen times a game - driving the lane for a basket, an assist or a foul.

And don’t score on him. That only makes him mad.

“If somebody does something on him, he conducts an immediate personal vendetta on the court,” assistant coach Bill Grier said.

“I guess, yeah, I like to get revenge on the court,” said Dixon, who will lead the Bulldogs into WCC Tournament action against Saint Mary’s Saturday at Santa Clara’s Toso Pavilion. “I try to make them pay for it, but that’s probably when I get most of my fouls, too.”

Dixon is averaging 11 points and nearly six assists a game while playing 37 minutes in each conference match.

The real measure of a point guard, Few contends, is how many games his team wins. In the past three years, two at Gonzaga and one at Clackamas (Ore.) Community College, Dixon’s teams have gone 67-19.

“He’s the perfect point guard from the standpoint of ego,” Fitzgerald said. “He doesn’t care at all about statistics - he just cares about winning.”

And to do that, Dixon will try just about anything.

“He makes passes that our bench doesn’t even see,” Few said. “Fitz will be up yelling for him to hold up and Kyle will make a great feed and Fitz will just turn around and say, ‘Wow, big-time play.’ “He’s really a genius on the floor.”

That genius did not entirely transfer to the classroom, as Dixon quickly grew homesick and dispirited with school last fall.

Twice, he decamped and headed home to Sisters, Ore., only to be coaxed back to campus.

“It was just school mostly; I’ve never been good at school,” Dixon explained. “And I grew up in Sisters, 21 years, and it’s difficult to be away from a place.”

This season has gone more smoothly, he said. “I feel like I fit in a lot better; that just took a while.”

With a win in the opener of the WCC Tournament, Dixon would have more wins in two seasons than any other GU point guard.

“I never thought I’d come here and do as well as I’ve done - help get us into the NCAA tournament (last season),” Dixon said. “It’s been an exciting two years.”

WCC Tournament preview

The Gonzaga men get a nice reward for winning a regular-season co-championship.

They get to open the tournament (at noon Saturday) against a Saint Mary’s team that pushed them into overtime before GU pulled out a one-point win.

“Saint Mary’s is playing great basketball right now,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s a tough draw.”

Fitzgerald said there will be little chance of overconfidence as the No. 2-seeded Bulldogs meet the No. 7 Gaels.

“I think the players in this league recognize the difference between two and seven isn’t that much,” Fitzgerald said.

Aside from all-league center Jumoke Horton, the Gaels have received strong play recently from a pair of freshmen - Brad Millard and Eric Schraeder.

Millard, at 7-foot-2, 315 pounds, came up with 16 points and 12 rebounds in the Gaels’ Saturday win over Portland.

“We’ve grown up as a basketball team,” Saint Mary’s coach Ernie Kent said. “Some of our freshmen have really stepped up for us down the stretch.”

Gonzaga women

Gonzaga’s No. 8-seeded women face a much tougher task, taking on top-seeded Portland Thursday at 2 p.m.

Portland swept a pair from the Bulldogs this season by an average score of 89-58.

“It’s certainly a difficult position to be in,” GU coach Kellee Barney said. “Portland’s been on a roll, a scoring frenzy. And as everybody can tell from our stats, we’ve had problems stopping our opponents.”

Portland is paced by conference player of the year Laura Sale.

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