Ben Deihl | sports editor

Growing up in Memphis, David Dixon only started hooping because of one person — his sister, Liz. Dixon hadn’t even dribbled a basketball before Liz introduced him to the sport, helping him fall in love with it as she expanded her collegiate career to the WNBA.

“I played against my sister all the time growing up,” Dixon said. “We used to battle. I was just going to be as physical as possible, and I guess that helped me in terms of playing against actual competition.”

Moving into his high school years, Dixon started at the Memphis Academy of Health Sciences before playing for Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) school Speights Academy in Florida. AAU schools prioritize uniformity in amateur sports, helping student athletes reach the next level.

“I was able to play against some of the best competition in basketball playing AAU,” he said. “When people say basketball takes you around the world, they’re not lying. I was able to meet a lot of people.”

Dixon helped lead Speights to a 55-win season in the school’s first-ever season, garnering national attention despite being the newest AAU school. He received multiple Division I offers, even planning to commit to San Diego State. But in his senior year, it all started to fall apart.

A torn ACL would sideline Dixon for the majority of his senior season, immediately halting all of his progress on the court. The injury also raised red flags about his durability, something that jeopardized his D-I offers.

Granted an extra year of eligibility after the COVID-19 pandemic, Dixon played one more season of high school hoops to prove to colleges he was an elite player. His AAU exposure helped, but he wasn’t getting the D-I looks like he was before his injury.

But Duquesne, in the midst of a 6-24 season, wanted to take a shot on the 6 foot 9 inch forward. He proved to be a diamond in the rough, a talented player waiting for his chance. And once he took an official visit, Dixon’s mind was made up.

“When I took my visit [to Duquesne], I enjoyed everything,” Dixon said. “I’m a southern kid, I don’t usually go up north. But I went up there for the first time and really enjoyed it, and they just made me feel welcome.”

Head Coach Keith Dambrot completely reworked Duquesne’s roster heading into the 2022 season, adding Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark III from the transfer portal and Dixon and Kareem Rozier as freshmen. Dambrot prioritized true shooting and physical defense, giving Dixon a solid spot on the roster.

He’s a tough guy,” Dixon said of Dambrot. “He has a good side, he genuinely cares. I genuinely wanted to prove myself, and he tried to do the things I want, do the things I was good at.”

He appeared in 27 games for the Dukes as a freshman, earning six starts while collecting 24 blocks and 20 steals. The pieces were finally being put together for Dixon, and the team’s confidence was building heading into the 2023-24 season.

“I knew we were good,” he said. “We were a really good team. We brought in Dusan [Mahorcic], Andrei [Savrasov], the [Drame] twins. We had a whole lot of good players on that team.”

After a hot start to the season, Duquesne went 0-5 to open A10 play despite the team’s chemistry and confidence.

“We went 0-5 to start the conference,” he said. “I was like, ‘why do we keep losing? I feel like we have all the pieces. We just can’t grind out a win.’”

But gritty wins would come for the Dukes down the stretch, good enough to earn them a first-round bye in the A10 Championship. After beating Saint Louis in the second round and besting No. 24 Dayton in the quarterfinals, the Dukes had their eyes set on March.

“Going into the tournament, we felt confident in ourselves,” Dixon said. “I remember me and Kareem were talking after the [Dayton] game. He said, ‘We’re going to win this title. We’ve already beat [St. Bonaventure] twice. We beat VCU at their crib.’ Everybody just had to do what they needed to do, and we were going to win.”

And they did just that. Duquesne’s A10 Championship earned them a spot in the national bracket for the first time in 47 years and a date with BYU in Omaha, Nebraska.

“As we’re practicing for BYU, I’m thinking to myself, ‘man, I’m about to achieve one of my dreams,’” Dixon said.

Dambrot retired after his NCAA Tournament run, leaving Assistant Head Coach Dru Joyce III to take over the reins. A transition year followed for Duquesne, as the team shifted coaching philosophies while losing key players like Grant, Clark and Rozier.

The Dukes went 13-19 in 2024, losing in the first round of the A10 Tournament. It was a deflating year for Dixon, who continued to see an expanding role while dealing with surgeries after every season.

“It was rough for me,” he said. I was like, ‘man, why are we losing? Why are we not playing well, why am I not playing well?’ I felt like I didn’t grow as a player.”

Still, Dixon’s mentality and willingness to improve and perform left a lasting impact on Joyce and the rest of the coaching staff, who saw a player blossoming into a leader for his senior year.

“He’s been a joy and a pleasure to coach,” Joyce said after Duquesne’s quarterfinal loss to VCU. “He can light up a room. It’s been fantastic to just see his development, from who he is as a person off the court to the things on the court, too.”

After not starting through the first couple of games, Dixon saw his workload increase as the season progressed. He finally stepped into the spotlight like he’d been waiting to do since he arrived on the Bluff, and in the biggest moments, he showed up.

Facing a 30-point deficit in the regular season finale, Duquesne and Dixon looked primed for a disappointing loss in front of a packed UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. They’d slip in the A10 standings and have an even tougher battle in the tournament.

But Dixon put the team on his back. 17 points. 11 rebounds. Two blocks. Two steals, and the game-winning tip-in to complete the largest comeback in school history. If there were any doubters left, Dixon eliminated their arguments and stamped his name in Duquesne basketball lore.

“I felt like that was the storybook ending,” he said. “I made the big shot, we ended up coming back and winning. It was a fitting end to my career as a Duquesne Duke. I got a good send off, especially in front of my parents.”

A frustrating loss to the eventual A10 champion VCU Rams would end Dixon’s career as a Duke. As he exited PPG Paints Arena, teammate Jakub Necas pulled him back to give the fans one final goodbye from their team’s cornerstone.

“Saying goodbye to the fans, the feelings were starting to hit me and I started tearing up,” he said. “It was crazy. I don’t got anything else. The realization was kicking in.”

Still, Dixon is permanently etched in Duquesne’s history books. He’s one of two Dukes to finish his career with 100 blocks and 100 dunks, just 14 blocks away from 200. He’s played the most games ever as a Duke with 130 appearances.

“I’m just a simple guy that loves to win,” he said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help a team win. I don’t have to have the ball in my hands to impact the game. I want to be remembered as a legend.”

Ben Deihl can be reached at deihlb1@duq.edu