The ESPN SportsCenter “Sunday Conversation” will be with Coach Jamie Dixon and deal primarily with the passing of his sister Maggie Dixon. The interview will be with Andy Katz, who has already admitted he considers Dixon a friend. In advance of the interview he has a preview article.
Then there has been the endless inflow of mail and e-mail from friends, colleagues, strangers, even military personnel from around the globe and the repeated attempts to make sense of something that never will make any at all.
Somehow, throughout it all, he is staying stable. In a lengthy interview with ESPN on Thursday, Jamie was able to reflect upon his sister’s life, her legacy and the horrible day when she collapsed.
“I think she’ll be remembered as a person [who] loved life, loved people and being around all types of people,” he said. “She enjoyed every minute of her life. She’ll always be remembered as the coach at West Point, [as] someone [who] seemed to be on top of the world. She impacted a lot of people in such a short amount of time, and why something like this happens will always be asked. Why a person who did everything so right, would have something like this happen so suddenly.
“I’ll remember the special times, and she’ll always be an inspiration to me. [She] always has been and [will] continue to do so for us and our family. She’s in our thoughts always. I’ll never go a day without thinking about her. I never did before.”
There’s a link in the story to the conversation to watch online. It cuts out on me at the 1:38 marker out of 4:24 Looks like I’ll actually sit through a SportsCenter for the first time in ages. There’s an early airing on Sunday morning around 10:30 after the Sports Reporters.
Katz is still a reporter, and he makes some other use of his time with Coach Dixon with some other tidbits in his blog.
Circle Pitt at Wisconsin on Dec. 16 as another big-time nonconference game. Pitt should be picked to win the Big East while Wisconsin likely will be selected as either No. 1 or 2 in the Big Ten.
…
Pitt is looking for a few more games (its series with Penn State is over). The Panthers are going to Auburn as well as the aforementioned game at Wisconsin, and it appears the Panthers will host an exempted tournament on its campus, with Northeastern as one of the teams.The Panthers wanted to be in one of the high-profile events but had a hard time getting a nod. Look for this to be an ongoing issue in the 16-team Big East as Syracuse, Connecticut and Louisville become the first choice of events like Maui, the NIT and the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic now that teams can play in an event like these every season (just not the same one more than once in a four-year period).
That was the concern and the reason the old rule was in place.
The post also notes that the solid money is on the Big East to go to an 18 game conference schedule after the 2006-07 season. Also, there is a proposal to have the bottom 8 teams in the Big East play on Tuesday of the BE Tournament. Those winners would face the #5-8 seeds on Wednesday. That would get all the teams to NYC for the BET.
