City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Eric Dixon knew that whichever one of his four college finalists he chose, he’d end up at a winning program with a chance to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. But only one of those four programs was a quick drive from his Abington home.

“A lot of times, you pick your college, that’s where you settle,” he said. “At some point the ball’s going to stop bouncing, and normally where you get your degree from is where you get your jobs from, and I didn’t want to be all far away from my family.”

So while Virginia, Seton Hall and Louisville presented strong cases, as Dixon noted, “(there’s) a premier program 40 minutes from where I stay, and I just couldn’t think of a better place.”

And that’s why in the fall of 2019, the current Abington High School junior will begin playing for Jay Wright and the defending national champion Villanova Wildcats.

He's the first member of Villanova's recruiting class for next year.

Dixon made his commitment public on Tuesday afternoon in an announcement ceremony at Abington, but the decision was finalized over the weekend, in a long talk with his parents, Eric and Jean E. Dixon. An Abington native who’s always enjoyed playing for and representing his hometown during his high school years, the ability to stay close to home and play high-level basketball was too much to turn down.

“it just came down to what do we really want to do with my college career,” he said. “And I want to win, I really do want to win, but I also want to play, so just trying to find that balance of playing time and winning. The reason I picked Nova, it wasn’t so much the basketball...it’s just the people, the program, the school is set up for me.”

Winning is something Villanova has done more of lately than any other basketball team in Division I history. The Wildcats have won no fewer than 32 games in the last four seasons and are 165-21 in the last five, with two of the last three national championships and a projected roster good enough to win another one next year.

Under head coach Charles Grasty, Abington has also been successful on the hardwood in recent past, winning the District 1 AAAA title in 2015, the new district 6A title in 2017 and then defending it again this spring, when a Dixon-led Ghosts squad won 27 games and made it to the state quarterfinals.

A powerful 6-foot-7, 245-pound left-hander, Dixon has been a three-year starter for Abington, averaging 24.0 points and and 9.5 rebounds per contest; at 1,616 points, he’s closing in on the school’s all-time record, Richard Wright’s 1,681 which he should pass in the first few games of his senior year.

As one of Abington’s top players since his freshman year, when he was already a regular double-digit scorer and rebounder, Dixon’s college recruitment began much earlier than most of his peers, with his first offer coming in from Saint Joseph’s early in his sophomore season.

Playing with WeR1 on the Under Armour Association circuit last year, the scholarships poured in: from Georgetown, Rutgers, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Miami (Fl.), joining with all the local schools to give him a list of more than a dozen choices.

Villanova came in latest, with Wright offering on Nov. 15 of last year.

“It’s really hard to believe...I’m just a kid who played basketball in the YMCA, I didn’t ever imagine getting these big-time offers,” Dixon said. “When Virginia called me it was shocking and when Louisville offered it was shocking. But from Novaland, it was extreme excitement for me and my family, the whole community was so excited.”

For a while, Dixon’s recruitment featured Villanova, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Virginia and Xavier; he eliminated Rutgers from contention in the spring, and the Xavier offer switched to Louisville along with head coach Chris Mack.

He kept a close eye on each of those programs throughout the 2017-18 season, which saw Villanova finish 36-4, winning its third-ever national title over Michigan on April 2; Virginia (31-3) and Seton Hall (22-12) also went dancing, with the Cavaliers famously becoming the first No. 1 seed to get upset in the first round, though Dixon said the tournament results didn’t have any bearing on his decision.

“It changes the way you watch the games, it really does, because you’re trying to catch every single game of the schools who are recruiting you, and truthfully when it came to making my four, it was the schools who kept in touch with me over the season,” Dixon said. “The season’s hectic for college coaches, and I know that, and for a coach who’s contacting me...in the middle of the season, they must have a lot of faith and belief in me.”

In college, Dixon will put his faith in Wright and his coaching staff, a gamble that’s paid off for just about every recruit the Wildcats have brought in lately. Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges are both off the NBA after stellar junior years, while Omari Spellman just announced he’s testing the draft waters, and Donte DiVincenzo could do the same.

At a bit of an undersized ‘4,’ Dixon might not be in the running to depart early for the NBA, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t crack the rotation right away. A four-star prospect according to the 247 Composite Rankings, he’s a skilled, physical post player with a bevy of moves around the bucket, and he’s also an improved jump-shooter who can make tough baseline turnarounds as well as 3-pointers and mid-range shots.

“They said they recruit basketball players, and they feel like I’m a multi-talented guy, I can change games in many ways, and they can also help me get a lot better at things I can get a lot better in,” he said. “Seeing what they did with Kris Jenkins, even [Eric] Paschall and Spellman now, that they can work with me and I can come in and help them win games, hopefully right away.

“They felt like I’m unique,” he added. “A little bit like Kris Jenkins, a little bit like Omari Spellman, but in terms of trying to put me in a mold, they see me as Eric Dixon, and they want me to be the best Eric Dixon I can be.”