Four-star G Dixon talks about what stood out on his OV to UVa
In what will likely go down as one of the busiest stretches for UVa basketball recruiting ever, four-star Rivals150 guard Derek Dixon was on Grounds last Thursday-Friday for his official visit.
While the class of 2025 standout has been to Virginia a few times, the official gave the D.C. product an even deeper view of a program that’s been tracking him for quite a while now.
“It was good to see the campus again,” he told CavsCorner. “I got to see a lot more people that I have not met before. I got to talk to the strength coach and some of the different academic advisors and all of the different coaches on the staff. So overall it was great just to see more people and see all of the facilities.”
Most of Tony Bennett’s most successful teams at UVa have had really good shooters. Bennett knows in order to get back to making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, the Wahoos have to get better shooters in the program.
“Coach Bennett knows that when they were successful they have had guys that can really shoot the basketball like Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy and Malcolm Brogdon,” Dixon explained. “They were guys that can play on and off the ball and shoot. He knows he needs more of those types of guys for his system to work and he thinks I can fit that. He also talked about that he has to improve their offensive scheme and they think I can be a guy that can really help that.
“Coach Bennett just kept on saying he needs guys that can shoot the ball and guys that can space the floor for his system to work,” he added. “He needs guys coming off screens and he just kept reiterating that he is going to make changes to his offensive system and continue to improve and adapt.”
During this visit, Dixon got to spend a lot of time with Mike Curtis and the entire strength and conditioning program really caught his eye.
“One thing that I really got to know more about was their strength and conditioning program,” Dixon recalled. “I talked a lot with Mike Curtis and he was really impressive. Their weight room is really big and nice. They have a lot of great equipment and they have a lot of motion sensors that can monitor you and see different types of balances and efficiencies.”
Dixon was also able to spend time with some of the current first years at Virginia.
“I got to see Elijah Gertrude, Anthony Robinson, and Christian Bliss,” he said. “We had a lot of good conversations about how they loved being at UVa and Anthony and Christian talked about their redshirt process this past year. They talked about how they really got to improve and work on their game and they think they will be big pieces next year.”
Along with Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse have been the two schools most talked about when it comes to Dixon but he said has a completely open recruitment at the moment.
“I think I am going to play out the AAU season and see if any new schools get involved,” he explained, “and then I will most likely make my commitment in the late summer or early fall.”
The Gonzaga playmaker is currently No. 64 overall in the Rivals150 for 2025.
