Hey there. It’s been a while. Good to see you again! Welcome to Part 1 of 2026’s Tracking A Transfer series. It’s a little different this year and we’re getting started a little later because, unlike last year where there was almost a complete roster overhaul, this season UVa returned every single eligible player – I believe the only Division 1 (at least high-major) school in this boat (Purdue lost one deep reserve only so you could also count them – but not technically). As a result, there are about half of the incoming players to capture in this series (and the international one) as there were last year… with just rumors as of the time of this writing that there may be one more in the hopper from overseas. I was going to wait until the incoming class seemed fully wrapped up so that I had full context when writing these pieces but, given the ambiguity of that timeline, we’re going to jump in now. Also, I did write a quick note about this year’s schedule and some differences this year compared to last for reference.
Jurian Dixon was the first player signed in this year’s portal class (aside from our own). The strategy was clearly to lock the returning pieces in and then explore what could be fit around them. Unlike last year, where we seemed to have as much money as needed to launch the Odom era, this year’s investment was primarily in retention (along with the obstacles of some of the new revenue sharing rules, which we won’t dive into in great detail here). Dixon comes to us after two years at UC Irvine. I think we can call it a pipeline now given Devin Tillis also came from here and head coach Russell Turner was an assistant under Ryan’s father, Dave Odom, at Wake Forest. Dixon was a highly decorated player in the Big West conference, earning All Freshman honors two years ago, All-Tournament Team and All Big West Conference First Team this past year. Jurian was the leading scorer for UC Irvine, averaging 15.9 points per game on just over 30 mpg played. He took more than 5 threes per game (182 on the season) and shot a nice 38.5% on those attempts while knocking down just south of 80% of his free throws, but attempted just 3.2 per. I thought that Dixon’s offense was pretty consistent throughout the season; including some of his best performances against some of the better competition that he played and some of his weaker performances (mostly) coming in games where he wasn’t needed as much offensively. His defensive intensity and quality of play, on the other hand, I thought improved noticeably throughout the season and was at its best in conference tournament play. We’ll see him against Hawai’i in the Big West Championship game later in the piece. Encouraging that he appeared to improve in this way as the season progressed.
Listed at 6’4″, 195 lbs, Dixon is an interesting athlete. He’s quick laterally and can be fast in the open floor, but he’s not much of an explosive vertical athlete. As a result, he relies more on craftiness and change of pace while attempting to finish around the rim or in transition – something at which he is skilled, but is still sometimes a challenge against quality rim protection. But, while he isn’t overly springy, his quickness is promising and surprising, allowing him to catch opponents off guard with his first step on both ends. I believe he has some untapped potential on both sides of the ball, but especially on the defensive end where some improved technique and awareness away from the ball could go a long way. It reminds me, a bit, of a mixture of Malik Thomas at San Francisco’s defensive positioning and Sam Lewis at Toledo’s need to conserve some energy on the defensive end (or lack of coaching around consistent urgency on that end). Both of those players improved significantly on that side of the ball for us last season as they got familiar with how our bench was utilized and became more familiar with our defensive scheme.
While there is upside that I’ll talk about, there’s also a decent amount of polish in Dixon’s game. I like how he plays offensively. He’s a good shooter and he’s underrated with the ball in his hands, which UC Irvine leaned into more as the season progressed but, more, he’s a smart and unselfish player who is a very good connector. He sees the court well and has really nice touch and creativity with his passes. Given his 2.5 assists to 1.5 turnovers per game, you may think I’m embellishing this a little. Some of that was that this wasn’t what he was asked to do often throughout the season – playing more off the ball and then being relied on as a scorer. To clarify, I’m focused primarily on his game sense here. He keeps the ball moving, is efficient with his dribble, will take what’s there, but wasn’t looking to force things despite being the team’s leading scorer by almost 4 ppg. Contrasted to someone like Malik Thomas who, ostensibly, played similarly, Thomas was a more explosive scorer but also played much more out of control. It was a challenge for him all year to adjust his play style to be less ball dominant and to fit into how we played last season. I don’t believe that Jurian will struggle with the same adjustment. In fact, I think that will suit his game very well at this level. He won’t be shy about hunting his shot when it’s appropriate, but he also won’t feel the pressure to and could thrive as a fourth or fifth scoring option.
As it stands, it looks like he would be our 5th starter, at SG, alongside Mallory, Lewis, De Ridder, and Grünloh, but I could also see him as a versatile 6th man option if there’s a starter-quality signing or even if Harmon earns the starting spot. We’ll look at some options during our review of not four, but five games, below! There’s a bonus UCLA pre-season scrimmage that I won’t include much content on, because I don’t think it was the most reflective of a competitive game… but there are still some things against better competition worth mentioning. The main four games will be against South Dakota State in the Cancun Challenge, against North Dakota State and Norfolk State in the Sun Bowl Invitational, and then finally against Hawai’i in the Big West Conference Championship game – all neutral site games except for the scrimmage.
We’ll jump in but…
First A Word About UC Irvine
The Anteaters (it still doesn’t get old writing that mascot name) finished 107th in the country in KenPom with a stark discrepancy in offensive rating (264th) vs. defensive (26th). They were one of the best FG% defenses in the country and played very similar in style to how we did last season – with smart man-to-man and consistent drop coverage on pick and rolls. Center Kyle Evans led the country in blocked shots; but this wasn’t a situation where he just dominated on talent and verticality. At 6’10”, he primarily accomplished this through good positioning, mobility and anticipation – and with a nice defensive scheme that consistently funneled opposing drivers his way while out of control. When players posted him up or got into his body, he wasn’t nearly as effective – but the Anteaters worked to avoid that. It reminded me so much of how we played defense last year, just against worse competition so the talent adjusted. A broader look at the strategy can be found here. So, it really shouldn’t be a huge adjustment to how Ryan Odom coaches defense systematically for Dixon, although there will be some things to clean up as we’ll talk about later.
Offensively, again, UC Irvine was pretty similar in their approach. They also ran a motion offense that relied pretty heavily on the pick and roll, spacing, and ball movement. Dixon was very good at finding the right place to go with the ball throughout, but often wasn’t the man initiating the offense or running off of the ball-screens earlier in the year. As the season progressed, he got more of these reps, leading to more midrange shots or facilitation to teammates. I thought that the Anteater offense looked sharper the more he took over these responsibilities and the less he deferred – which was backed up statistically by their poor team efficiency rating. Per Evan Miya, only Dixon and Evans were more than one point per possession better than an average college player per 100 possessions on the entire Anteaters roster, certainly pulled down by the fact that the team’s other three starters were in the negatives. UC Irvine did look to get out and run when they had the opportunity, and unless he got the rebound directly, Dixon’s job was typically to leak out, try to get ahead of the play, take an outlet, and either make something happen or set up the offense.
Basically, Dixon was their second-best player this season driven primarily by being an offensive catalyst on a good defense. That being said, I do think he’s the one player among the full team whose game translates pretty well to the Power Five level. Kyle Evans will likely face some real challenges with his lack of outside game and size in the ACC this year (he committed to N.C. State) and I’ll be surprised if his game translates outside of being a hustle player.
Okay, let’s check out Jurian!
Offense
Dixon is a promising offensive player who is used to being his team’s primary scoring option. I’ll discuss throughout that, while he was a volume scorer all season, I thought that he was more assertive later in the year, which was encouraging. Additionally, his team increasingly put the ball in his hands as the season progressed. He’s a good outside shooter on high volume and is capable of putting the ball on the deck but, at this level, I like him more as a facilitator, a connector, and a converter outside than as a primary offensive engine. He’s a very smart player, reads a defense well, and is a fantastic passer; and I think that’s where his game will most translate. For all of the things that he does well, there are a couple of weaknesses – such as a slower windup on his outside shot that causes him to reject some opportunities and have some shots more closely contested. He also has more horizontal than vertical athleticism which caps some of his finishing around the rim. Let’s take a look with some specifics:
Outside Shooting
As a 38.5% shooter on 182 attempts, Dixon took more threes than anyone on our team other than Malik Thomas last season, and shot at a better clip than anyone but Jacari White and Sam Lewis. That being said, many guys who transferred into our program last year saw a downturn by a few percentage points while adjusting to ACC defense. I was surprised at how variable Dixon’s comfort appeared to be – and he was pretty hot and cold over some stretches of the season; going 5-26 over one six-game stretch and 16-29 over a different five-game stretch. Sometimes his shot looked really fluid and confident while at other points he appeared to be thinking too hard or worried about the defense. Let’s go ahead and start by looking at him as a spot up threat.
To be clear, Dixon is absolutely a dangerous shooter that you can’t leave alone. He shows off his impressive range in this look, below, against Norfolk St. simply by being willing and able to shoot from deeper than his defender expected.
He gets a little space here and takes advantage of it. Notice how low he takes the ball, though, prior to the release. This is my largest question mark, as we’ll see later, as it relates to getting the shot off on time without rushing. Very comfortable here, though.
Here’s another look from the same game. Here he has plenty of time on the catch and shoot after a kick out from a collapsed defense after an offensive rebound. He takes his time and drills the opportunity:
Here’s another really good look, in rhythm, as Dixon relocates from the point to the wing, takes the cross-court pass, and spots up. It’s good movement without the ball, understanding where to get to space, and then taking advantage. I also like it because it’s smoother than the previous two clips, catching and moving into the shot while settling, despite still loading up from low.
When he’s playing free and not over-thinking things, there’s a comfortable and willing feel to his attempts.
Here’s another good look from the corner – this one is about as if not a little quicker release than the previous clip, although still bringing the ball down pretty far. It’s a good look at how threatening he can be out there, though and, again, how he’s got a nice drift to his movement to create distance from his defender away from the ball.
That slide from the wing down to the corner while reading his teammate’s drive showed good feel for the game; understanding where the best passing angle would be and how to lose his defender.
This next one from the scrimmage intrigued me because it sort of marries the best of the above. Getting into the shot quickly, maximizing depth to lull his defender (along with the ability to hit from that range), and grace in setting up the defense in preparation for the shot. Lots of confidence here:
This came pretty late in the contest when things were already well out of hand in favor of UCLA, though, and he appeared much more selective and hesitant earlier, though.
I think he’s a better spot up shooter than pull up shooter, as most are generally. This is especially for him, though, because of how he usually takes the ball so low on his release. At times, it doesn’t appear to come as fluidly, though.
Here, for example, is the same game against Norfolk St. UC Irvine is up big; which probably speaks to why Dixon isn’t really looking for his own shot here, as much. On the plus side, he is an unselfish player and is clearly trying to move the ball and get his other teammates involved. The play does end up resulting in him getting a WIDE open opportunity on the wing, though, and he just doesn’t look comfortable shooting it. The wind up is there and pronounced, but actually looks a little jerky instead of fluid.
Watching that clip – it’s not a very close miss, given how there was no defender in his area code. It happens, but there are enough kind of “bad” misses in this part of his game (as well as the midrange, which we’ll get to) that it’s a little odd given how good of an overall shooter he is. I think it’s a sign that he has moments where he gets in his head and over-thinks certain opportunities, defenders, etc.
And I think, sometimes (coupled with his unselfishness), it causes him to pass up shots that you’d just rather he take. For example, he was the best three-point shooter on this roster. After this kick out, below, after the rebound, you’d rather he just step into that shot at about 8 seconds into the clip below. There’s plenty of space despite the close out. Instead, his fake does create a more open opportunity for a teammate on the wing – but that’s not as good of a shot in all likelihood as him just taking the initial attempt… because it’s him and that was also open.
It also means that when his feet aren’t set or he’s kind of adjusting his positioning on his shot, he’s got too much to think about. On this next clip, below, he passes up what should be another corner three attempt because he’s retreating to the line and the ball is slow coming. He’s having to gauge whether or not his release and timing will beat the close out. He does drive the close out and just misses the shot at the rim – and I’m not mad at that shot in a vacuum other than the one he passed up to take it. As the possession progresses after offensive rebounding, he ends up taking another three on a high pass out with a defender closer to him than the initial one in the corner.
It becomes even more variable off of the bounce, though. Sometimes that element of his game is really good and looks so comfortable. But, again, when he doesn’t look comfortable, he often looks really uncomfortable.
This is toward the end of the Hawai’i game in the WCC Final – a game in which I thought he played really well overall. There are 5 minutes left in the game and the Anteaters are down by 3. They certainly don’t need a three, but tying the game would also be nice. Dixon has a switch and is being guarded by 7’0″ Isaac Johnson (#20) – a player whose size gave Irvine (and Evans, which is another reason I think he’s going to struggle in the ACC) fits all game. When Dixon gets the ball, he takes a couple of dribbles toward the slower Johnson to get him on his back foot. I’d have liked to see him use his quickness to try to get by Johnson and create something here. Instead, he uses that momentum to step into a pull up three. The problem is, you see as he goes into his shooting motion, there’s a pause on his gather and his release just isn’t quick enough. It allows the lengthy defender to contest and actually block the shot.
It was mostly Dixon underestimating Johnson’s reaction and reach – but it does illustrate the impact of the slower release motion.
This is a similar look from earlier in the same game. The release is more fluid and he takes less time to gather himself, but it still appears stiff overall and like he’s aiming the shot. Perhaps not yet in the flow of the game because we will see some quality momentarily, but notable that this game bookends with some uncomfortable looking pull-ups from Dixon:
Part of the problem, again, is how the rest of his teammates are pretty bad at generating offense coupled with his tendency to want to play within the flow of the offense and get them involved. Notice how passive he is with the ball on this possession, deferring to the other guards to set things up… which only ends up with the ball in his hands at the end of the possession and a poor look. This is something that I do think will suit him better here; deferring to some of his teammates early should let some of our talented scorers get into the flow of the game while Dixon can adjust/step up once the defense adjusts. Last year, there just weren’t the quality of threats to help take the pressure off of him.
Okay, one last look at an unnatural-feeling three, below. This one he takes after realizing that his defender is playing under the screen… but it’s just long from the jump.
Again, early in the game, again I think he’s just not really feeling it yet and hasn’t wrapped his mind around aggressively shot-hunting at this point in the contest.
But, before I scare you, here are a few looks from those same two games where he is feeling it and appears completely comfortable. This was from the same SDST game. He had a very slow start, as we saw, but this was after he sat on the bench for a while and ostensibly re-focused. First, take this opportunity to notice his passing, which we’ll talk about later. It’s intentional and keeps advancing the play. After receiving the double team from the inbound, he makes a nice entry over the trap to Evans in the post. Relocating when nothing comes from that, he takes the kick out and immediately swings it to try something on the other side of the floor. No hesitation, no wasted movement. After getting the ball back toward the end of the shot clock, this time he sets up the ball-screen and is ready when his defender goes under – stepping right into the three.
This next one, below, is against Hawai’i again… and this is what we started to see from him more often as the season progressed. What we’re going to talk about later on is that there was a shift over the season where UC Irvine more often initiated their offense through Dixon as opposed to having him primarily play off the ball. In addition, he was more aggressive about these opportunities and taking the responsibility on his own shoulders. So, in some of those clips above, you’ll see these shots coming toward the end of the shot clock. Here, Dixon goes and gets the ball from his PG 19 seconds. The whole play is designed to give him the first action on attacking. They set the ball-screen for him through Evans, his man goes under, and he pulls right up and into the shot.
If you ask me, yes, his form doesn’t create the quickest release opportunity – but it’s much more mental. I think that Dixon is an ultimate team guy and is going to play the role that his coach wants him to. We’ll see this across sections in this piece, but most prominently with his offense. With the reigns turned over to him fully and the expectation that he is the primary option to go and get a bucket, he just played far more confidently.
One more, especially fun, look from the same game. Keep in mind some of the other clips you’ve seen and how he deferred to the base offense and then took the obvious opportunities that were there (aside from the last one). Here, though, he gets the ball on the wing, attempts to reject the screen only to be stopped by the defender. Earlier in the season, I believe he would have swung the ball up through Evans (#14) here with so much time left on the shot clock. Instead, he just turns back, uses the ball-screen the other direction, and confidently steps into the shot:
While I didn’t love the decision and mechanics that led to him attempting to step into a three over a 7’0″ in crunch time, I still really appreciated his offensive aggressiveness and growth in this game which, if they had won, would have sent them to the NCAA Tournament. You could see him navigating that transition from impactful Freshman in the year prior to “the guy” in his Sophomore year.
Now, of course, he’s probably going to have to get back in that time machine and go back to being an impactful role player on this team. I think that suits him, though, and he won’t have an issue with it. It’s when he was playing like that but his team wasn’t talented enough to support it that got him in trouble. He’s got the talent around him this year to lean into those complementary strengths, while also still having that experience of needing to be the guy. I think that combination of mentalities will be well-suited here.
To put a little bow on this section, I’d say that I very much expect Dixon to be a capable shooting threat who you don’t want to leave alone and who you can’t slack off of. Teams are going to have to play him aggressively. That being said, when they do, I expect both his volume of threes taken to come down and his percentage made to drop at least a couple of percentage points as well. His general looks and contests he faces should be tougher on the net and I think it will have at least some impact due to his shooting mechanics.
Okay, let’s move on…
Facilitation
I mentioned previously that Dixon’s role was not to be the primary ball handler throughout the season, but that UC Irvine started to increase his reps in that area as the season progressed. It’s an intriguing discussion, to me, considering the ambiguity around our backup PG situation. Chance Mallory will, no doubt, log the majority of minutes here. Jan Vide was recently signed from Loyola Marymount ostensibly to be the backup PG. Perhaps that’s how it will shake out. Perhaps someone on the roster already like Elijah Gertrude could earn some time in this role, instead. For certain, this will not be the primary ask of Jurian Dixon. That being said, I think there’s some potential here for him to helm things in the event that Vide doesn’t translate to this level of play or that no one else emerges as a viable option. We’re talking like 10 minutes or less in this capacity.
I don’t think he has the pristine handle or the aggressiveness to routinely carry this load. That being said, I was really impressed with his court awareness, vision, and the touch of his passes. I thought his game sense was really nice and he did a good job of regularly getting the ball to his teammates in positions that would enable them to be successful. Let’s take a look!
The first thing I’d point out is that he’s a really intuitive passer with good touch, accuracy, and sense of where his teammates need the ball. Here’s a subtle but great example, below, against Norfolk St. after they’d switched to a zone. Watch Dixon’s feed to the high post. It leads his teammate into the perfect spot to take the jumper, leading him away from the trailing defender and into space ahead of the Center and Wing defenders.
Really nice touch and feel there.
Because of this, UC Irvine would look to put him in key positions to help facilitate their offense – like in the clip below using him in the high post against the zone to either take the midrange or pass out of it. Notice this quick turn and feed to the baseline.
Really nice recognition, quick decision-making, and good execution.
He shows some real creativity with his passes at times, too. In this next clip, below, I really like his vision and intuition. He plays with his back to the basket after having his dribble cut off here, lulls the defense to sleep a bit, and then fires a quick turnaround pass across the lane for the layup attempt. Evans misses in close (I’m going to stop pointing out that I don’t like Evans in the ACC soon, I promise…), but it doesn’t make this pass less impressive.
This next one, below, really shows his creativity and just general awareness, in my opinion. It’s late in the game against Hawai’i, trying to cut the score to one possession. He takes a pass from a BLOB play moving toward the corner and draws the double team. He could have easily gotten trapped here and stalled the play but, instead, gives a quick shot fake, slips around the big to the baseline, and even though he slips and starts to fall, he’s got the awareness while looking around the trap to fire the pass to Evans (#14) in stride toward the hoop!
Not only is that slippery, but he hits his read right in stride while going to the ground. You’ve got to have a lot of game savvy to make this play, not only avoiding the trap, but making something so controlled and positive happen out of such a chaotic situation.
Here’s another one toward the end of that same game that really impressed me with his feel. It’s just over a minute now and he crashes in and grabs a missed free throw. Off to the races, which we’ll talk about later but is nice for our system, Dixon controls the tempo of this entire possession. First, he gives a nice leading pass ahead to push the defense. After taking the return pass, he then slices through the lane, draws the defense, and dumps it off to Evans for the easy layup.
There are so many things about that play that I really love. Firstly, just the feel to push the tempo and keep things moving but, more, watch the angle and patience he has on his drive. If you pause at six seconds into the clip, you’ll see that on his dribble he’s gotten his shoulders entirely past his initial defender on the bounce. That’s the 6’9″ 230lb Harry Rouhliadeff so, although the quick first step is impressive, it’s not necessarily the most formidable on ball defender. That being said, watch how he not only slices away from the helping Isaiah Kerr (#4) but how he could make the pass to Evans earlier, allowing the deep defender, the 7’0″ Isaac Johnson (#20) to get back into the play. To avoid that, Dixon takes the dribble deeper toward the near block, drawing Johnson to him and thereby making Evans layup attempt easy once he receives the ball. These little things and attention to detail make the difference between a 7’0″ rim protector contesting the under-sized Evans at the rim and him having an uncontested look instead.
Side note, one of the reasons you have to watch full games instead of highlights is that sometimes really informative things happen on possessions that don’t result in points. This clip, below, gives you a really good sense of Dixon’s ability to control the flow of an offense and help grease the wheels. Watch his fingerprints all over, initially taking the cross-court pass, faking a pass, probing on a pick and roll and looking to feed the middle of the defense until they collapsed. He keeps the ball moving and then gets it back to set up a DHO, but then makes himself available again in the corner as the SDST defense hard hedges the point and cuts off the middle of the court. This next part is the main reason I included this, though. Watch as Dixon gives the shot fake, drives baseline, draws the double team but then pivots away from the defenders and lays this gorgeous pass into the perfect spot to Elijah Chol (#3). Chol doesn’t really handle it cleanly nor go up with it and it doesn’t lead to a shot attempt – but it should have if Chol had been ready for the pass and been aggressive.
That game feel around the double, passing really around three players, is really impressive to me.
And here’s one more, again that doesn’t end up in an assist. Watch how he takes the ball in the corner, snakes his way through traffic, and then uses the threat of the jump shot to bait the defense only to pass out of it to Chol again. That should be a finish from a 7-footer every time but, again, it doesn’t make the set up less impressive.
I just love that about Dixon’s game – he just has a really nice feel for how to manipulate a defense.
Probably the underrated part of Dixon’s game, and something he started to do with more regularity throughout the season (and I’m not sure why they didn’t really prioritize it more – maybe because they wanted him to get more catch and shoot opportunities), was ball-handling in the pick and roll. We’ll see it some in the Self-Creation section later on, but will focus just on the facilitation element now.
Here, below, we’ll start this look but it’s a good kind of hybrid transition from some of the looks above. First, we get a nice tight pass into the post from Dixon leading his man away from the clinging defender which, if he turns and goes he’d have basically a 2-on-1 at the rim. This doesn’t amount to anything, though, so Dixon takes the pass back, quickly fires it over to Evans, sprints into the handoff and then, silky-smooth, one-hands it back to the opening Evans for the little push shot.
Not to belabor the point, but that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about with regard to keeping the ball moving, asking consistent questions of the defense, keeping the pressure on, and passing accuracy.
Okay, here we get him more off of the bounce. One thing I noticed is that Dixon much prefers to run the pnr with his left-hand so that he can get the defense moving in that direction and pass over the defense with his right. We see it twice on this possession, below. First, he quickly feathers a pass over the double team which Chol should make something happen with. He doesn’t, so Dixon reverses the ball only to get it back. This time, he takes the pick going left again, sustains the dribble longer into the lane, draws three defenders, and still feeds Chol moving toward the hoop. Chol doesn’t make the shot but does draw the shooting foul.
Here’s another look from the same game, and this one’s very slick. This time we see him, at the end of the shot clock still, initiating from the point. I like his initial hesitation and then burst to lose his original defender, then he draws two defenders in the lane and has this nifty little turn with the ball where he has an innate sense of where his roller will be; flipping it back to him before landing and with little identification needed. Another shooting foul is drawn.
This goes back to that aforementioned creativity and court awareness, while adding some nice pacing and set up.
One thing we’ll talk about later is how Dixon is the primary player that UC Irvine would have leak out after shots or primarily attempt to stretch the floor after rebounds. He’s pretty fast and their general trust and desire to get him the ball in space helped fuel this. Here’s a good look in advance of that section that relates here, though. Watch how after the defensive rebound, Irvine fires the ball ahead to Dixon (you can see him leave quickly on the miss). He waits for traffic to pass but still attacks during the secondary break while the defense is settling. Then it’s just setting up that ball-screen moving to his left. I also really like the touch and anticipation of this pass as he throws it before Chol fully opens and as he’s running into it:
Just nice and clean.
Similarly, here’s a look at Dixon himself grabbing a defensive rebound and pushing the ball up the floor. Again, we’ll look at transition as a focus in a bit, but here he is getting the ball up the floor quickly, settling into a secondary pnr, and again showing good touch passing into space and creating the easy layup:
We’ll take a look at a few more out of the half court just to kind of cement the point. Here’s a nice lead in while he sets up moving the ball toward the corner, gets his teammate to clear out, opening the space up for the roll after he uses the screen coming back toward the middle:
And then this next one, below, is just another nice and quick decision with touch on the pass:
One last point to call out – look at how much mileage he gets out of his shoulder fakes. Because his first step is pretty good, he often doesn’t have to put the ball on the floor to draw a reaction from his defender. This allows some really controlled fakes prior to deciding where he wants to go.
It wasn’t all roses. I’d say when Dixon does get into trouble it’s because he was a little lax with his passes. Here’s a look at him just kind of under-estimating the contest and shorting the pass over the top:
And here’s one, below, where he’s a little sloppy with his dribble and just rushes an entry pass after the recovery:
Overall, though, I really liked him initiating to facilitate. He more often than not made the smart play and the easy play where it as available – but was able to mix in some really difficult execution as well. A very good connector who can both keep the ball moving while controlling the defense AND initiate.
So, how was he at looking to create for himself?
Self-Creation
Now, given his effectiveness with his outside shot and his ability to read a defense and pass the ball, this is an area where I would have liked to see him do better. He really just wasn’t that aggressive trying to make things happen for himself in the halfcourt and, when he was, it often resulted in more of a midrange-type shot. Dixon has a pretty quick first step, as I’ve mentioned, but he’s not an explosive vertical athlete. He can dunk in transition, but generally plays below the rim with his finishing and shot selection. I’ve found that he tries to be a little more crafty, when given the opportunity (and we’ll see this in transition). It’s better to just show what I’m talking about….
Here’s a look from the scrimmage with a move that reminds me very much of Chance Mallory this past season. He gets shut down on the initial drive after the pick and roll, but baits like he’s going to pull the ball out and cuts back baseline. It’s a nice move and he draws the foul – but watch the finish attempt here. There’s very little lift. He jumps at an aggressive angle away from the basket and, though he draws contact, just kind of flings it up there. It’s not as much control as you’d want despite being a positive play because of his deception.
Here’s a look from the Hawai’i game, below. I love how he operates on this play. First, they get him the ball early with the design of getting him in the pick and roll which I mentioned before was an improvement for them. The shoulder fake into the ball-screen is effective, as is the spin move in the lane to get clear around the Center. He draws the foul. It’s a good play. I’d just think that if he had a little more lift on that finish rather than jumping so horizontally, he’d probably have been able to finish the shot and avoid such a close contest.
The talent is there, though, as you can see.
Now this one, below, was better despite still not finishing. Again, I like the economy of his first step as they bring the screen to him. His pivot foot does a lot of work for him here and that final rip through and his quickness allow him to get fully by his man. As he drives the lane and jumps into the shot blocker, he still doesn’t get the greatest lift, but he’s able to climb the ladder, use the contact, and readjust his shot in the air like he does with his passing. This doesn’t convert the attempt, but did ensure that the got the foul called and gave him a chance.
Don’t get me wrong – you absolutely take these and they’re positive plays – it’s still just not quite as efficient as you’d like in terms of the finishing or as when he’s creating for others around the hoop.
He does have a decent finishing suite around the rim, despite this, though. While it’s not as efficient as it could be normally, there are absolutely moments where you think that he should be hunting these looks more often. For example, here against Hawai’i, the rejection of this ball-screen made me gasp with how effective it was and how badly he left his defender waving at space. If you pause at 13 seconds into this clip you’ll see almost half of the length of a basketball lane of space created between him and Isaac Finlinson (#6), and even though he loses the ball on the way up, he goes a nice job of angling around and finishing over the 6’8″ Gytis Nemeiksa (#5).
Like, that finish is classy, and he’ll hit you with those sometimes, and that first step was fantastic.
Here, below, we get a nice zoom action that he uses to knife through the lane. He uses his speed and momentum to get a decent enough angle on the 7-footer Isaac Johnson (#28) who had 3 blocks in this game, but it’s the continuation of the pivot, and the really difficult finish fading toward the baseline over his outstretched shot contest that makes this play.
It’s efficiency of movement that gets him there – putting the ball out in front of him on the drive and then that sort of extreme horizontal leap going into the shot again. It’s a very nice make – that’s a really difficult finish!
And then, here below against SDST, it’s that shoulder fake again. That first step can be an absolute killer, and then he shows off his floater suite in the lane.
So, he had some really effective moments with this. It was almost like he just didn’t trust it as much as he could have, and would sometimes flinch or rush in there.
In this clip below, he misses an open three, but the rebound finds its way back to him. He drives the open lane, spins back to the center, throws a pump fake, executes a solid step-through, but just doesn’t have the explosion to do much else other than fling the shot up wildly in traffic.
It felt like he had all of the right thoughts but then just rushed the finish because he didn’t trust it.
Sometimes this causes him to be a little timid or not trust himself as much on the drive, I feel. For example, in this clip, below, against North Dakota State, he gets the ball with his man out of position and has a lot of space in front of him driving into the lane. #30 stepping up to defend there is 6’6″ Guard Markhi Strickland. #44 is 6’9″ Treyson Anderson. If you pause at 8 seconds into the clip, you’ll notice that Dixon is already going into his jump stop as soon as Strickland starts to step up. There’s a ton of horizontal space to his right, or he could attack the defender. Instead, he pulls up short and starts to come to a jump stop, allowing his defender to get back into the play and poke the ball away from behind (probably an uncalled foul, but still).
I think sometimes he just lacks the wherewithal to know how to maximize a drive himself.
Below, for example, this is more technique than anything else in initiating in the ball-screen. He gets a nice screen on the far wing, but rather than cutting that drive at a sharp angle off of his teammate’s shoulder and getting downhill/attacking the opposing big in drop coverage, instead he takes a very wide and flat angle. This allows his man to catch up and recover into the play, while also giving the help-side wing defender time to peck down at the ball. He ends up settling for a midrange pull up jumper as a result and it misses off of the front of the rim.
In my opinion, this is a mix of experience and confidence. There are elements of his game in which Jurian Dixon is very confident – but getting downhill in traffic and trying to challenge longer defenders at the rim is not one of them. As a result, he often settles for the midrange game, like you see above, more than I’d like.
It is a part of his game he clearly works on and can be an asset. Like here, for example, he simply backs down Trent Perry (#0 – remember that name?) from UCLA into the mid-post and hits a turnaround jumper over him.
That’s a nice a fluid move – and I’d argue that he’s comfortable with it likely because he’s getting into and out of that spin move that he likes and because he’s moving away from traffic on the shot.
He’s got a nice little push shot that he shows off in this clip, below, against North Dakota State when they went to zone. We saw earlier that UC Irvine turned to Dixon in the high post to help break the zone as a passer, but they also did it because he’s effective if no one steps up and the defense leaves him alone.
He makes some very difficult shots, too, as we saw earlier over Isaac Johnson. Here, below, from the beginning of that same game, we see him use the dribble hesitation and good pacing to get Johnson to drop back to his man, but then makes a running baseline floater while his man attempts to recover.
Very skilled and incredibly difficult.
He’s got the more traditional pull-up in his bag, as well. Here’s another good look against Hawai’i where he’s run off of the three-point line but dribbles into the baseline and knocks down the jumper:
And here, below, against South Dakota State, we see that leaner at work again, this time against man-to-man. I like this drive quite a bit as he gets downhill more quickly, stops under control, fakes the pass to his roller to force the help defender to drop, and then hits that leaner with comfort.
So, he’s got some game here and options to work with. I like that he has the capability of taking these opportunities when the defense gives them. These are some of the least efficient shots in basketball for a reason, though. The range and position are more inconsistent and variable than a three-pointer and it’s worth fewer points if you make the shot. What we won’t want is getting forced into these kinds of shots because it’s harder sledding getting to and finishing at the rim.
Here’s an example of what I mean, below. UC Irvine gets the ball up the floor quickly and Dixon gets the ball on the wing with the 6’4″ Eric Freeny (#8) stepping out to match him. There is enough space, in my opinion, for Dixon to shoot this ball on the wing but, as we discussed earlier, he might not have felt as though he had the time to get the shot off against the close out. Instead, he attempts to drive the close out, which doesn’t go as well as you’d hope, given that Freeny was moving toward him. The timing of the drive isn’t great. Dixon waits too long so that Freeny has already started to break down and is more quickly able to retreat to match the drive than if he had attacked while Freeny’s momentum was moving forward. The drive is cut off both by Freeny and by help-side defense, so Dixon spins away back to the middle of the lane. This would be a great opportunity to pass out to the point for either a three-point attempt or to reset the offense. Instead, he turns his spin move into a fadeaway jumper that’s hotly contested.
Now, I’ll point out again that this one is a scrimmage, so decision-making does need to be taken with a grain of salt. And, generally speaking, I love Dixon’s decision-making on the whole. Still, I really don’t like this shot selection and I especially don’t love what it indicates in terms of how a P5-level athlete matches up with him defensively.
Here, below, we see him against the North Dakota State zone, and this kind of brings together both of the chief concerns from the Outside Shooting and this session together. On two separate occasions, I’d have liked to see him pull the trigger on the three-point attempt over the close out. He should have had space and he’s a good shooter. On the second, he dribbles past the close out and it’s not like he gets a terrible shot. I don’t love the lift he gets on it after the pause but, again, it’s tough to live in the midrange.
You’re just leaking efficiency when you’re passing up open threes for these kinds of shots.
And, back to the point earlier about how sometimes his shooting can be streaky, for a good shooter, sometimes he could be well-off target on these midrange looks:
A final look at this, below, against Hawai’i which kind of epitomizes the thought, I believe. He gets the ball with under 10 seconds on the shot clock at the top of the key. In a dream world, there’s enough space there for him to elevate into his shot, but he balks at doing so over the 6’6″ Dre Bullock (#4) and I think he does a nice job of showing the shot, ripping through, and driving past the defender. That being said, there just really isn’t much else for him do to there other than pull up with the defender on his heels and try to knock down the midrange jumper.
Again, you can get much worse shots that late in the shot clock. It’s not a bad idea – it would just be more ideal if he could have taken the three or driven in a little deeper and either challenged the shot blocker to dish or to try to draw contact.
So, look, I think there are going to be moments at the end of the shot clock where Jurian Dixon makes some crazy plays for us that are exciting to watch. It’ll be some kind of quick and efficient move on the perimeter and a high degree of difficulty finishing. I like that he’s more poised to pass and make something happen there, as well. That being said, I think we’re going to want him shooting from the perimeter and driving to dish as his primary thoughts. Finish an opportunity if the defense allows it or tries to take other players away. Take the occasional tough midrange shot when the possession and shot clock dictate – but we shouldn’t need for him to shoulder as much of the scoring on this team and I would think that there will be more efficient options, like De Ridder, Lewis, even Mallory if we need someone to specifically go and get a bucket in the lane themselves. It’s one of those things where it’s nice that he’s had this experience and this responsibility and there will be times where it shows up positively – but you’re still going to want his role to be reduced a bit compared to what it was for UC Irvine because that part of his game is likely to be harder to execute at this level.
In Transition
This is always such an important element to consider when thinking about players coming into Coach Odom’s system, knowing how much he emphasizes getting the ball up the floor and trying to get easy baskets. This is, probably surprisingly, where I like Dixon’s fit the most with what we do. Firstly, he’s fast; he just moves well in the open floor. But, also, his good game sense and feel like I talked about before means that he often makes good decisions. He’s got good vision and is aggressive about making probing outlets. He’s got good control off the bounce, even at full speed. On UC Irvine, his role was to be the most aggressive leak after the opposing team took a shot, to try to get ahead of the defense, get the ball, and make something happen before they could set. This is also where you most commonly saw why he has some hesitancy trying to finish around the rim, though. Let’s take a look.
In this first clip, we get a look at his alertness and straight-line speed. Watch how he plays defense away from the ball as we’ll talk about this later. He kind of turns his back to his man, which he’s going to need to work on, but it does give him good vision on most plays. Here, he uses that to his advantage by being aware as soon as his teammate gets the steal and he’s off to the races. He beats Trent Perry (#0) up the floor in a foot race, takes the nice outlet pass in stride, and finishes with a hesitation finger roll, letting Perry run by him.
That’s a surgical quick strike that you love to see against P5 competition.
Here, below, I’m a fan of this play against Norfolk State. He grabs a loose ball with momentum and sprints off with only two Spartan defenders in position to get back. He uses his dribble to veer in front of one, effectively cutting him off and taking him out of the play. Then, he sets up the lone defender back to the right before taking a clean step through to finish easily with his left hand at the rim.
Speed, awareness, control, thoughtfulness, and skill.
I think this next clip gives a look at how much more comfortable and assertive he is when the defense isn’t yet set. UC Irvine gets the rebound and Dixon has leaked out to the wing, not ahead of the full Bison defense, though. He takes the long outlet pass, and you can see how the Anteaters tried to get him the ball in these situations. Dixon quickly drives the center of the lane, collapsing the defense, before spinning back to his right hand and hitting the runner off the backboard.
If you revisit some of the earlier clips in the Self-Creation section, you should notice more of a downhill willingness/aggressiveness here. He loves the spin, but rather than fading away into a contested jumper, he’s moving toward the basket and virtually almost in layup range. He’s not as concerned about the defender under the hoop here, which is good!
Okay, this next one shows a little toughness and determination. After collecting a deflection on defense, Dixon goes full court with his left hand, with the pesky, strong and quick 6’0″ Damari Wheeler-Thomas (#1) in his pocket the majority of the way. Dixon takes the contact, is thrown off balance, and still finishes with a nice little left-handed runner over the 6’9″ Treyson Anderson (#44).
That probably should have earned him a foul, as well. I like how he was able to maintain his dribble with his off hand in traffic, actually outpace a player who might have been able to harass his dribble, and still finish acrobatically over a formidable contest while off-balance and full speed.
This next look shows off his mental game and another reason why Irvine liked having him in this position. Notice that he pushes out ahead on the missed shot again, but this time the ball doesn’t come to him quickly. Still, he continues to probe and slips behind the defense before it’s set for the easy finish at the rim.
One more look at this specifically, below. Here we see him run out again after a steal. He’s once again able to separate from the recovering defense but has to wait up for the pass. Undeterred, Dixon smoothly keeps momentum, stops his dribble with the step through, splits the two defenders and finishes easily at the rim.
There’s just a lot of confidence place in him, for good reason, that he’s going to be able to create space in transition and then capitalize on it.
Now, here’s where you start to see the reason behind a lot of this previous conversation. This time he picks up a loose ball and is staring straight-down at Trent Perry (#0) on the break again. This time he slows down to measure up Perry, implementing some nice trickeration to get by him on the Euro step, but the delay in the move, coupled with the lack of elevation on the finish allow the trailing defender to get back into the play and bother the shot, which he misses.
He could have made this shot with better execution, but it’s a good look at how he needs to be sneaky at times around the rim which makes finishing tougher in general.
Here’s a potentially more glaring look at that on the heels of a really nice defensive play (which we haven’t gotten into yet). Jurian aggressively attacks a pass on the wing and comes up with a steal going the other way. He gets the ball all the way to the hoop and gets into that spin move to create space for the shot. Again, not the best elevation when he goes up for the finish, though, and he gets blocked from behind as a result.
He can get above the rim with a full head of steam… but this is what I mean that he doesn’t regularly play above the rim functionally.
In the same game against Hawai’i, who was a huge team with three starters 6’8″ or above, a 7-foot center, and a 6’6″ SG (and a 6’3″ PG), Irvine is full court pressing late in the game down 4 with just over 40 seconds to go. Dixon does a really nice job here of springing the attack as Hawai’i crosses half-court and with his active hands to force the steal. He’s also done no favors by the outlet pass which is bothered and forces him to wait up as opposed to having a clear run to the basket. That being said, his hesitation to move by the initial defender and kind of finesse, for lack of a better word, in this area allows the trailing defender to get back into the play and block the shot.
Perhaps going through the initial defender, or collecting himself with a pump fake before going up for the shot… either would have likely worked better. That being said, I’d like to see him trying to draw contact to secure a foul here and then trying to finish given his game.
One last look at this, not to belabor the point but to emphasize that it wasn’t just against huge teams or P5 squads. On this break he’s given the ball pretty late so he doesn’t have a great opportunity to get speed or momentum into his jump. You can see the lack of elevation as a result, and the help-side defender easily cleans up this attempt.
I’d like to see Jurian Dixon play off of two feet more often in the lane. He’s unlikely to increase his explosiveness, but he can augment his craftiness by not forcing himself to jump at the end of his drives. Come to a jump stop. Give a pump fake or two. Be more alert to when the defense has the upper hand and be willing to run regular offense. With an offense that struggled as much as UC Irvine, perhaps passing up these kinds of opportunities was unappetizing; but playing for UVa, it shouldn’t be. Not only will this end fewer possessions in blocks or difficult shots, but it should also allow him more confidence to take the ball deeper in the lane as we were discussing earlier because he will draw more positive possessions with free throw attempts OR will have the flexibility to kick the ball back out.
Okay, the last idea I want to spotlight in this section, though, is that Dixon isn’t just a threat to score in transition, but he’s quite good at pressing an advantage and creating for others. Here, against Hawai’i (and it’s important to remember that this was one of the better teams UC Irvine faced with games that counted last year and Dixon played very well), Dixon takes a rebound from a three-point attempt and keeps his eyes up the floor. This outlet pass to Evans is absolutely perfect; leading him right under the hoop. Evans doesn’t convert and gets blocked from behind – but the pass created advantage that should have led to a bucket.
Here, below, this is just a sick through pass. Dixon grabs the rebound and turns to run – watch how he subtly takes his angle more to his right to give Evans a clearer running lane and then threads a pass through both defenders, lowering his body to secure the passing angle and perfectly leading his man.
Again, Evans doesn’t finish at the rim (something, something, Evans isn’t going to translate as a big in the ACC), so no assist for Jurian, but the play does result in a shooting foul and is a fantastic look.
And then, finally, here’s a good look at him effectively exploiting a two-on-one while beating full court pressure. I like how he takes the ball deeper into the lane so that the defender has to commit to stopping him and then the quick layoff for the easy assist.
There were fewer of these opportunities in transition for Jurian because normally he was the player getting ahead on the break and looking to receive the outlet. That being said, I expect he’ll have more of these chances this season to be the one pushing the ball.
Even though he ran into some challenges finishing at the rim, I still think Dixon is a weapon in the open floor. He gets moving quickly, is decisive, and manipulates defenses well. His skillset is a really nice match with how we love to push transitional basketball.
Alright, that wraps the offensive section. While there are areas of his game that I think will be vulnerabilities as he steps up in level of competition, there’s a lot of good here. Not only does he fit into our scheme well as a quality shooter who plays with tempo, but he’s an incredibly intelligent and unselfish player (at times to a fault on a much worse team) who I believe will fit well onto our team as a connector who helps elevate the talent around him.
So, let’s take a look at the other side of the ball….
Defense
Dixon’s quickness and activity create the potential for him to be a very disruptive defender. I was encouraged to see that the best defense he put on tape was at the end of the year in the conference final. Candidly, watching him on film reminded me of Malik Thomas in that his off-ball technique needs some improvement and was far too focused on denial of his man. It also reminded me of Sam Lewis in that he showed the capability to play really good defense, but the focus and effort wasn’t always sustained.
That being said, both Thomas and Lewis (especially Lewis) showed significant improvement on that side of the ball after coming to play for Ryan Odom. The technique, I believe, will come from coaching. The effort will come from coaching, the way we play such a deep bench, AND the fact that he shouldn’t be asked to carry such a heavy offensive load. The tools are here, and I think they will come together here given all of the above and what previous players put on tape vs. what they showed when they came here. It’s better to evaluate tools and ability rather than perfect execution when considering translation into this system, I’ve found.
So, let’s start….
On Ball
It’s worth noting that Dixon played off of the ball a lot because teams often made it a priority to attack elsewhere on the defense. UC Irvine often just let that be, allowed Dixon to play away from the ball, try to get a steal if he could, and then leak out in attempts to generate transition opportunities as we saw in the previous section. Occasionally, they would put him on ball to try to disrupt a pesky player, though.
Here he is guarding the 6’0″ Damari Wheeler-Thomas (#1) who was North Dakota State’s primary point guard, averaged just under 15 ppg on the season, and had 14 in this game. Dixon guarded him off and on throughout the game with varying success, as we’ll see later, it could be a tough cover. Here, though, holding a slim lead with under three minutes to go in the game, Dixon is trusted to take the cover and you see him shut down the drive attempt early with good reaction time, anticipation, and technique. South Dakota State would later tie the game up on this possession, but they looked elsewhere to do so.
That’s a quick clip but I like it because it was UC Irvine trusting Dixon in a clutch moment and him doing a nice job to move with a quick player. Beating his man to the spot, using that inside arm to control the body without fouling is all textbook.
Let’s take a look at the Hawai’i game again, which I thought was his most complete effort that I saw. Here, he’s guarding the 6’6″ Dre Bullock (#4), giving up a little size. Watch at the beginning of the possession how he beats Bullock to his spot on the drive and shuts down the dribble immediately. That’s so disheartening for an offensive player because you get the first move and dictate where you’re going, so when you get cut off like this, it’s easy to get discouraged. As the play progresses, Dixon does a pretty nice job of trying to scrape through a ball-screen and, even though he ends up trailing the play, he sticks with it and ultimately blocks the shot attempt from behind.
Very active and intrusive in that one.
Another thing about Dixon that we saw earlier when he was applying full court pressure is that he’s got quick and active hands that he often gets on the ball to cause deflections. This clip is a fantastic example of that. He’s close to getting the steal trying to deny Bullock initially, then he completely shuts down the drive angle again and uses his near hand to reach at the ball without getting out of defensive position. This causes a deflection and a brief scramble that Bullock ultimately retains. You see Dixon react in disappointment as he almost had the ball, but he doesn’t give up and this time pressures the pass from his stalled man, getting his hands on it and ripping it cleanly. Now, we see the same finishing issues crop up in transition the other way again, but the defense here is absolutely smothering.
When you hear stuff from the UVa staff about how much they value Dixon as a defender, it’s clips like that one they’re thinking about. When he’s completely locked in, he can make it really hard for his man to even move the ball effectively.
Here’s another look at it that’s less glaring because it’s not sustained and he doesn’t get a steal, but watch how when Bullock (#4) gets the ball, Dixon absolutely shuts down his initial drive angle not once, but twice. It leaves Bullock nowhere to go, and he passes out before really doing much of anything.
UC Irvine plays pick and roll defense much like we did last season, which will be good for Dixon’s ramp up. Their Center played extreme drop coverage and their guards chased over top of ball-screens, trying to deny three-point attempts and to run their men into the shot-blocking presence. They were also coached hard not to foul in the process and to force the offensive player to score over the contest (remember, this was Evans strength as the leading shot-blocker in the country). Here you see another clutch possession against the Bisons with Dixon still covering Damari Wheeler-Thomas (#1). You’ll see him being physical with some ball denial early, and then fighting over the ball-screen and just riding Wheeler-Thomas down the lane into the waiting Evans; ultimately resulting in a kick out.
It’s good positioning and control by Dixon throughout, as he’s basically on his man’s hip the entire way but also doing a great job of not making unnecessary body contact. The extended hands are also a good way to contest anything that might have gone up while making it clear that he’s not fouling. Up only 1-point with 40 seconds left, you have to force the other team to make a shot from the floor and not get free throws, and he does so.
Here’s another similar look in a different game. Now, to me, this goes a little hard on the whole not fouling thing. Like, Trey Buchanan (#0) for the Jackrabbits should have probably been facing a little more pressure from behind – but Dixon also didn’t get tripped up by his attempt to draw contact through his prison dribble, either.
If you recall early last season, there was a stretch of early games where our perimeter defense just looked like it couldn’t stop anyone. Now, it was always the weakest part of our defense last year, but it became much more formidable as the season wore on and the players adjusted to the system and how they were expected to play. I suspect it won’t take as long for Jurian Dixon to adjust, but I do think that there will be some tweaks to philosophy so that he’s playing situations like this one above a little more aggressively; especially because it would have been a much bigger deal to UC Irvine if he got in foul trouble.
The problem that I had with his defense on the ball last season wasn’t his ability – but it was his consistency with regard to his effort, normally indicative of fatigue. Keep in mind that he basically played that up and down playstyle that we did last season, while carrying the lion’s share of offensive work, on over 30 mpg while only one of our players (Hall) averaged over 28 mpg last year. So, it’s possible that this will naturally course correct. That being said, there were some moments where it was clear that he was not as locked in.
Here’s a look against Norfolk State in which they’ve grown the lead considerably. Now, I’ll start off by saying that UC Irvine’s defensive system is designed to force players to drive baseline and funneling them into their shot-blockers. So, this isn’t as bad as it looks and, given the need to err in one direction, Dixon likely picks exactly what his coach would ask of him – and the result is a blocked shot, so it’s effective. That being said, he’s not meant to just give the old “¡Olé!” and open the red carpet for his man.
You’ll start to see his angles off ball here a little bit which I’ll get into in the next section, but he opens his hips too much and plays with his back to his man here, allowing him to shift to the corner while watching the ball. He flows to the ball on the kick out, but his recovery angle has him too high and open and he never corrects that. Of course, he is ensuring that his man doesn’t drive middle, so that’s good, but you do see that he bites on the fake while recovering, and you don’t want him trailing his man like this without having to fight through a screen, he should be riding/pinching his man more.
I think that one is likely just getting too aggressive away from the ball trying to make something happen given the scoreboard and being loose on his recovery.
Here’s another look from the same game. This time he allows himself to get screened too solidly while defending the ball and takes a poor/wide recovery angle. Again, you see some hesitancy, likely around fouling, on the recovery and he has some opportunity to try to be more of a pest on this shot but instead lets it go:
There’s an interesting juxtaposition, though, because we’ve seen how UC Irvine made a point of emphasis not to foul while chasing a ball-screen and let the rim protection do its job. That being said, they were very aggressive trying to deny the ball and steal the ball on the perimeter. Here, Dixon is over-aggressive on the wing, trying to make a play similar to some we’ve seen earlier, and as a result, he makes it easier to go around him, committing a foul in the process:
Here, below, he’s so preoccupied trying to anticipate and get over a ball-screen, that he falls prey to the screen rejection pretty easily:
I want to point out, again, that some of these defensive clips look worse than they are based on what UC Irvine was trying to accomplish (and, again, they finished the year with fantastic two-point, and collective, defense). Even with mistakes, Dixon was consistently mindful of his system’s rules and erring in their favor. He concedes too easy of a drive in that clip above, but he still errs on the side of shutting down the middle of the court and Evans is right there in position to keep the drive from getting farther down the lane. So, I do just want to sanitize that part and make sure it’s clear. That being said, Dixon has room to improve his technique, as seen there.
Here’s another example from the South Dakota State game (and the end of this game Dixon had quite a few sloppy possessions on both ends, oddly). He’s clearly trying not to foul, but he backs off of the drive too passively and then falls asleep on his man continuing his action out to the corner after the pass.
This last look from this section is probably my least favorite, although it works out. UC Irvine holds a one-point lead over North Dakota State. Dixon has again in clutch time been given the assignment of covering Wheeler-Thomas (#1). The Anteaters need a stop ostensibly to win the game (although some free throw trading could extend). You don’t want to concede a foul, but I’d like some more robust defense at the point from Dixon here. He really doesn’t impede the drive at all and ends up chasing, even with Wheeler-Thomas not using the screens in any real way. Now, the system (which, again, is similar to ours) works and the rim protection bothers the shot and forces the miss – but this is not Dixon’s best work.
I don’t want to see him so afraid to foul that he basically doesn’t defend the point of attack.
There’s some room for improvement across the board, but I do really like Dixon’s potential as a disruptive on-ball defender; especially if he will be playing fewer minutes, able to expend more energy, and be less worried about foul trouble. His ability to slide with his man with very good quickness and use his hands to bother the ball will be a significant asset for us. I can see him pressuring the ball up the floor in our full court defense, too, generating more turnovers than we were used to creating last year.
Off Ball
Dixon’s off ball defense was not the most fundamentally sound at all times and I’d describe it as more high-risk, high-reward at times. It was wired for denying the ball, generating turnovers, and seeing the full play so that he could leak out the other way at the first opportunity where it looked like his teammates were going to get the ball. He often played with his back entirely to his man, watching the play unfold, which created some big plays and pesky deflections, but also more complications. The good news is that I think it’s mostly a technique thing that he’ll learn pretty quickly in the ramp up to the season.
Let’s give it a look!
We’ll first focus on positives and how Dixon’s skillset should be able to do well in this area when he’s alert. We’ve already seen in some earlier clips how he can make it hard on his man away from the ball and this clip is a great example. He’s guarding the 6’3″ Anthony McComb III who averages just over 17ppg. As a result, he’s taking on a pretty extreme ball denial approach. You watch him flying up on the catch early on in the possession, and then with his back actually to the play behind him at times while shadowing (that part’s not ideal). He does read a screen away from the ball well, though, and jumps over the top of it, keeping the play from developing to the corner – and then he finally forces the second catch to his man far away from the hoop, moving away from the basket.
This is all pretty nice. Yeah, you’d love for him to see the play a little more at times, but he is effective at taking his opposition’s leading scorer out of the play and forcing them to play through someone else. There’s lots of potential here.
This next one, below, again is a look at his nice shadowing (and I mostly like the technique throughout on this one). He gets a lot of deflections in passing lanes and this one probably should have led to a turnover:
This next one comes out of a zone, but it’s still a good look at his quickness and reaction time away from the ball/intrusiveness in passing lanes:
This clip is in transition, but I love how it illustrates his hunger to make a play on the ball. UC Irvine misses a layup and North Dakota State attempts to run out the other way, but watch Dixon break on this outlet pass! When you last see him, he’s at the top of the screen retreating for defensive balance and you just see him starting to move. When you next see him, he’s broken like a DB all the way down to pick off the pass.
Unfortunately, he can’t save it to his own team before falling out of bounds, but that gives us another opportunity to check out his quick outlet pass after the Anteaters defend.
Okay, shifting now – this is his high-risk, high-reward approach when it hits. It also illustrates Dixon’s quick hands and nose for the ball. He’s very engaged here and it’s hard not to like the energy. I like how he gets halfway between his man in the ball kind of on the line, up the line at around 4 seconds into the clip to deter an easy pass and feign at the drive. As the drive stalls out in the lane, Dixon looks to shadow his man aggressively, eventually turning his back to him entirely but still baiting and getting the steal (because he has fully opened to the ball). It’s a nice steal and, bonus coverage, we get to see the Euro step the other way that struggles with the finish over the trailing contest (but it’s still a positive play and cleaned up by his team).
I like this play because it shows Dixon’s activity and instincts breaking on the ball – but we start to see his tendency to open up to the ball entirely and turn his back on his man. This will burn him at times as we’ll see in a bit. Still, a lot to work with here.
A more extreme version of the above, watch this time how Dixon opens his hips on the opposite wing for almost the entirety of the play. He’s basically fronting his man on the weakside wing; especially early on. Now, he still has great instincts for the ball and his lunge in the passing lane in this one causes the chaotic pass and turnover…
but this is a really good way to get back-door cut or to lose track of your man as he fades to another spot on the three-point line. We saw it on that baseline drive earlier and we’ll see it again.
This is another look from early in the Hawai’i game where we see it again. And again, Dixon is plugged into the return passes and gets his hand on the kick out.
That one doesn’t change possession, but it does disrupt the offense, makes them start from scratch with 10 seconds on the shot clock, and makes them have to think an extra beat about their passing.
The trend that you’ll see from many of these positive clips is that he does a nice job of creating chaos for the opposing team. For example, here’s one where he’s not as alert about his man cutting through the lane, but he recovers quickly. Once in position, he does a very nice job of pinching in on the drive while helping and causing a rushed pass back out to the wing, which results in a turnover.
Alright, now let’s look at some tradeoffs. Now, I’ll preface this again by saying that I think Dixon would lose some of his intensity and concentration when game margins got too spread – which isn’t good… but is better than suffering from the same lapses in closely contested games. This came in a 25-point game… but he was subbed out for the rest of the game after this play. Watch Dixon, again, opening his body to the ball, mostly turning his back on his man. As McComb (#7) fakes closing to the ball, Dixon bites and reacts really slowly to McComb quasi-back cutting toward the corner. As McComb gathers behind the three-point line, Dixon’s close out lacks urgency.
This was just poor defense due to technique (the gap on the catch was greater than it should have been due to Dixon’s positioning/opening his hips to the ball) and lack of urgency.
This next one, down big in the scrimmage against UCLA might be my least favorite of any clip I saw on Dixon. He overextends trying to get in the passing lane on a pass to the wing, gets beaten back-door and requires help. He’s pretty lackadaisical getting back into the play while guarding the 6’3″ Skyy Clark, #55 but eventually does, only to get blown by pretty easily from parity.
That was the worst effort I ever saw from him and, while it wasn’t consistent and was also in a scrimmage that doesn’t count, you do want to see consistent effort from your guys no matter the circumstances.
Here, below, he’s beaten backdoor while taking too extreme of an angle on the ball denial and is saved by Evans at the rim:
The last thing I’ll say is that, even when not getting beaten back door or losing track of his man, because he focused so much on ball denial, he often didn’t have the best awareness of the play around him. Here’s a great example early in the UCLA scrimmage while they’re running a BLOB play. He’s caught as an observer here; trying to get his head on a swivel but just doesn’t see the play unfolding in front of him in time to shut down the passing angle.
So, as you can see, Dixon’s approach to defense away from the ball was a bit of a mixed bag and had some opportunity for refinement. It also was a contributing factor in this last section….
Rebounding
This is the area I’d most like to see Dixon improve. Now, he averaged 3.6 boards per game, so he wasn’t bad at it. It’s actually a pretty impressive number given that he was often defensive balance and was often asked to leak out. There were too many times where, also impacted by his ball-watching away from the ball, he was just completely oblivious to boxing out or contesting with his man for a defensive rebound.
Here’s a great example from the Cancun Challenge. The Jackrabbits would maintain this possession and ultimately score, and it’s because Dixon just flat-out lost sight of his man, the 6’3″ Kalen Garry (#10), didn’t have a good angle, and was slipped past entirely – allowing Garry to keep the ball alive.
Some of the clips in the previous section where I talked about him losing sight of his man, you saw the backdoor cuts, but they were also very relevant to keeping his man off of the glass.
And here’s another look from late in that scrimmage but, still, it’s a rough one. Dixon loses track of 6’4″ Jamar Brown (#4) and gives up positioning on an initial dive to the rim in response to a drive from the opposite side. You’d think that would create some urgency, but after the kick out three, Dixon still doesn’t identify or box out Brown, and is really just kind of pushed out of the way with little resistance.
Again, that one was pretty late in a scrimmage – which explains some of the effort but was still indicative of some of the issues. These were the worst two examples I have, and I don’t try to include a ton of rebounding clips on already long pieces – but it’s worth noting that I don’t think this was a huge point of emphasis with Jurian and he’s going to have to adjust both in how he prioritizes fighting for rebounds on both ends and how he technically defends in support of that.
In Conclusion
I hope this piece didn’t read too lukewarm. I am actually really excited to see Jurian Dixon pair with our returning guys and few newcomers into this system. I think he’s an especially good fit because of the similarities in how UC Irvine plays to how we do. There will be some adjustments that I called out throughout the piece, but not as many as some other players face joining our team.
One thing I was really impressed with last year was how quickly so many new faces learned both of our systems and played together within them. You saw some growing pains and the learning curve early in the year, but it was still a good job by all to pick things up quickly and then you saw those improvements as the year progressed. We won’t have as many new faces this year nor as many learning, so it’s good for Dixon that he’ll have a pretty good jumping-off point.
As things stand, I believe that he will be our 5th starter. I’m holding out hope from some international news that could change that, as I think he’d be great as the first player off of the bench and bolster our depth there. That being said, I think he slots in really well as that 5th guy. I would think of him as the ultimate glue guy, at least in his first year at this level. He should be an impactful defender who we can put at the 1 or the 2; and while I do think there are some adjustments that he will need to make to his game to thrive in that area, those changes are more about learning and receiving coaching, which I think he does well. His quickness and disruptiveness should be assets.
On offense, I wouldn’t count on him to be as efficient or as much of a volume scorer at this level. That likely won’t be his role on this team. Maybe a high single-digit PPG guy rather than up in the 15s. He should be a great fit slotting into a starting unit with four guys who have previously played together, though, because he has such an intuitive and team-first sense of the game. His passing will come into play more and he still has that experience to confidently go get some buckets if that’s what the situation or matchup calls for. He’s the sort of jack-of-all-trades, master of none kind of player who is smart enough and skilled enough to morph into the moment. I believe that when he’s on the floor, he will help elevate the play of those around him; make our stars shine brighter while occasionally stepping into the spotlight himself.
All-in-all, I’m excited to have an All-Conference player joining the roster; especially one with a high floor but who also has so much potential to improve and grow over the next (fingers-crossed) three years with us. It seems laughable to make long-term plans in this day-and-age… but, given our 100% retention this offseason and the staff’s prioritization of targeting multi-year eligibility, it’s a reasonable hope/goal!
Alright, what a fun first Tracking A Transfer piece this year! Part 2 will feature Christian Harmon, our 6’6″ SG from Arkansas State. Likely in 2-3 weeks or so. See you then!
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