Pitt's Dixon get's two-year extension
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Pitt basketball head coach Jamie Dixon talks to the media at a press conference, Wednesday.
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Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon signed a two-year contract extension Wednesday through the 2017-18 season, putting an end to weeks of growing speculation that the coach might leave for Oregon.
"Other people may have been nervous the last 48 hours about rumors," Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said at a news conference. "I was never nervous about rumors over the last 48 hours."
Dixon, 44, said he agreed to the extension during the season after he was approached by the university, though he said he did not sign the deal until Wednesday.
"It was agreed to, which is good enough for me and good enough for them," he said.
Pederson said the announcement's timing had nothing to do with the Oregon rumors.
"This is unrelated to anything except performance and our desire for him to be the coach here a long time," he said.
Pitt sent out a media advisory two hours before the news conference. Pederson said that was the best time to release the news since Dixon is traveling to Indianapolis for the Final Four before hitting the recruiting trail.
Dixon dismissed the notion that the timing of the announcement and the Oregon speculation was anything more than coincidence.
"When is the right time, I guess would be the question," he said. "Every [extension] we've done has been this time of year. ... That there's jobs open and rumors out there, does that mean we don't do it during this time? I don't think that's the way to handle that."
Dixon had been mentioned as a potential Oregon target since the school fired 13-year coach Ernie Kent March 16. That speculation grew wildly the past week as Dixon was in New York at the same time as the head of Oregon's coaching search and after Dixon gave noncommittal answers on the radio about his future at Pitt.
First Published April 1, 2010 12:00 am
