One-season wonder: Senior transfer guard Mikey Dixon has been a bright spot for the Idaho men’s basketball team

MOSCOW, Idaho – Mikey Dixon is a shooting star in every sense.

Idaho’s 6-foot-2 senior guard is the fourth-leading scorer in the Big Sky Conference, averaging 17.7 points per game. He has taken 159 free throws and made 138 (87.3%) and hit 41 of 94 3-point attempts (43.6%).

Twice this year he scored more than 30 points. Against South Dakota State on Dec. 8 he scored a season-best 35. Against Weber State last Saturday he scored 31.

Such stellar performances at Idaho’s new ICCU Arena make Dixon a standout player for the Vandals (7-18, 4-11). He is the most dynamic scorer at Idaho since Victor Sanders finished his career in 2018 as the school’s second-leading all-time scorer with 1,804 points.

But if you want to see Dixon, you have to do it now. The senior transfer from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix is a single-season phenomenon with five Big Sky games and a conference tournament remaining.

His final year in Moscow follows a winding road that began at Quinnipiac, in Connecticut, where Dixon, originally from Delaware, was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year in 2016-17.

It includes a stop at St. John’s in New York for a season and two seasons at GCU.

The last stop is Idaho, because Dixon seeks to expand his role. His decision to change schools one more time is bolstered by a comfortable relationship with a Vandals assistant coach and possibly propelled by an urge to leave behind a tragedy.

“I wanted to be part of a team where I could have a bigger role and emerge as a leader,” he said of finishing his college career as a Vandal.

Dixon did walk away from success. GCU won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament last year and played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

The Antelopes, however, had gone through a coaching change in 2020. Bryce Drew replaced Dan Majerle. As a result, Johnny Hill, a special assistant to the head coach and former graduate assistant at GCU during Majerle’s tenure, moved to Idaho as an assistant coach, beginning in the 2020-21 season. Dixon, and GCU teammate Rashad Smith, a junior at Idaho, had a tight enough relationship with Hill that they followed him to the Vandals.

It may not be the primary reason he left GCU, but coming to Moscow gives Dixon some space from an event he will probably struggle to make sense of the rest of his life.

Oscar Frayer, a 6-6 senior forward with a gregarious personality that drew people to him, led the Antelopes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance. In a first-round loss against Iowa, he scored eight points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked three shots.

Three days later, Frayer died in a car accident in California.

“I think about him before every single game,” Dixon said.

Carrying on Frayer’s memory, within the context of life’s fragility, is part of what Dixon sees as his purpose with the Vandals.

“Whenever we’re tired or having a tough practice, I think, ‘He would love to be able to play, to be here,’ ” Dixon said.

Dixon tries to convey this to his current teammates as the Vandals make a late-season push. “(Idaho coach Zac Claus) always tells me, ‘The younger guys are always watching you,’ ” Dixon said.

“(Dixon) shows a maturity about him of taking on the challenge of being more of a voice,” Claus said. “It comes back to him allowing himself to be coached hard in front of his teammates. He’s our best player, and if he can take it, everybody should be able to.”

Like many teams, Idaho’s roster has been depleted over the course of the season by injuries and COVID protocol. Dixon points out he and Vandals starting point guard Trevante Anderson never got a chance to play together until this fall. For them, the season has been a crash course in building chemistry.

“It’s been a grind, but it’s all a part of a process,” Dixon said.

“In this league, anybody can beat anybody on any night. You have got to stay motivated.

“I really believe we can make a run. We finally have a full roster.”

When his circuitous college career finally concludes next month, Dixon hopes to move on and play professionally. In the meantime, carrying on Frayer’s legacy is important.

“I just want to leave a mark on this university,” Dixon said. “Basketball allows me to do that.

“I want to use that to meet as many people as I can. To put a smile on as many people’s faces as possible. I want to be that guy.

“Oscar, he left that mark with me. If there is anything I want to do besides basketball off the court, I want to have that charisma that he did.”