Five Questions With Derek Dixon: 'We're A Resilient Group'

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Derek Dixon further entrenched himself as North Carolina’s point guard with his performance on Saturday.

The Vienna, Va. native returned to his home state and orchestrated the Tar Heel offense in a win, scoring 11 points while adding a career-high seven assists — against one turnover — to go along with four rebounds. Dixon also led North Carolina in plus/minus, finishing with a team-best plus-22 in 33 minutes.

Dixon buried a stepback three over seven-foot Ugonna Onyenso with five seconds left in the first half, trimming the Cavalier lead to nine heading into halftime. The freshman took over after the break, playing 18 minutes while scoring eight points and dishing out six assists — against no turnovers — finishing a plus-18 in the second half.

Here are five questions with Dixon after the win over the Cavaliers …

You guys were productive in transition, what was the difference tonight as opposed to some other games? 

Derek Dixon: “Putting an emphasis on running. The bigs were really running down the middle of the floor, I got them on a couple pitch-aheads — Caleb on one, Jarin on one. Just really focusing on being fast, playing fast and those guys running it makes it a lot easier for us.”

Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar didn’t get the rebounds they normally get, how were you guys able to compete even though you got dominated on the glass? 

Dixon: “They had two really good bigs that are great rebounders and they were crashing the offensive glass hard. So it’s not gonna be Caleb and Henri all the time, they’re hitting, they’re boxing out — so for some of the guards it was really a focus for us to come back and help on the boards.”

You guys were down 16 with two minutes left in the first half and cut it to nine by halftime. How important was it to hit those threes to cut it to nine? 

Dixon: “I think it was really big to go into the half with a little bit of momentum, being down nine at halftime is much better than being down 16 or 20. 

“So it gives us a little more confidence coming out, and I thought at the start of the second half we came out really well and got right back into it.” 

The way you guys showed up on the road, what do you think it says about this squad but also your coach?

Dixon: “We’re a resilient group, and we believe in Coach (Hubert Davis). He’s been doing a lot of great things with us this past week to get us ready for these two wins we had. 

“I saw the quote where Caleb said some of our lapses, that’s on us, that’s not always on him (Davis), and I thought we were much better tonight.”

Jarin Stevenson took over late, what did you see from him and what fueled that? 

Dixon: “We all have confidence in him. He’s really skilled, he’s versatile, hit a three, hit an and-one, drove, and I just love when he’s confident like that, it was really big for us.

“Some days at practice, he’ll just start going off and I’m like, ‘Why can’t you do that all the time?’ And I was telling him out there, ‘Keep being aggressive, keep being aggressive.’ And he was making big plays.”