VILLANOVA, Pa.— Thursday, December 12 was an off day for Villanova. But not for Eric Dixon. There are no off days for Eric Dixon.
After scoring 27 points in the previous evening’s 86-72 home victory over FDU, the Wildcats’ 6-foot-8 senior forward rose early, walked to an on-campus gym and started his tried-and-true routine. His workout began as usual with prehab, which is a stretch before the stretch. After a warmup that focused on ankle and hip flexibility in order to improve lateral movement, he began launching one jumper after another, starting from close to the basket and steadily moving out beyond the three-point line. Dixon won’t stop until he has made 350 to 400 shots, or about 100 more than on an actual practice day. Once finished, he headed for the cold tub, then a shower, then rejuvenating compression boots.
Following his workout, Dixon will thoroughly hydrate and replenish with a carefully planned meal that might include only fish that has been caught in the wild, beef that has been grass fed and pasture-raised eggs. He does all of this with one simple, achievable goal in mind: “Get better every day,” he says.
The results of all those hours of lonely work have set Dixon on course to be in the conversation for National Player of the Year. This has been an unexpected development. When the 55 voters in the Associated Press Top 25 submitted their choices for preseason All-Americans in October, Dixon was not one of the 18 players who got at least one vote. Today, he leads the nation in scoring at 25.7 points per game. He eclipsed 30 points in three of the Wildcats’ first 10 games, including a career-high 38 in a one-point loss to Maryland. He is making 49.3 percent of his attempts from three-point range, which ranks 12th in the country. Dixon has had just one contest this season where he scored under 20 points. On Tuesday, he had 25 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in a 79-67 home win over Seton Hall. “He just does so many different things in so many different ways,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said after the victory over the Pirates. “You look up at the end and he has, again, 25. He’s a special scorer. Thank God he’s on our side.”
Dixon’s excellence has provided a lift for a program that missed out on the NCAA Tournament the last two years and stumbled to a 3-4 record, including a home loss to Columbia, to begin this season. Since, the Wildcats have won five in a row heading into Saturday’s pivotal game at Creighton.
Dixon was no under-the-radar recruit — he was ranked No. 67 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index — but he has far exceeded expectations. He currently needs 218 points to reach 2,000 for his college career and is on pace to break Kerry Kittles’ school record mark of 2,243 points, albeit in one more season than Kittles had.
Dixon’s success can be largely attributed to his intense workout regimen. “It’s amazing,” said Villanova senior forward Jordan Longino, who has played alongside Dixon for the last four years. “Eric’s somebody that’s a big brother, somebody that I look up to. He’s just more of a leader for this team and somebody that all of us look up to and somebody all of us follow.” The improvement has been noted well beyond the Main Line. “He’s a tough matchup,” said Maryland coach Kevin Willard, who previously coached in the Big East at Seton Hall. “I’ve been playing against Eric now for six years. He’s really evolved his game.”
Dixon first learned to play — and work — on a pair of outdoor courts located just off Rubicam Avenue in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. He shined as a middle school player and continued his rise at Abington High School, scoring 23 points as a freshman in his first-ever varsity game. “I could see he wanted to get better every day,” says Charles Gratsy, Dixon’s high school coach and now the Abington athletic director.
Dixon finished his freshman season by averaging 15.5 points per game, upped it to 19.1 as a sophomore and ended his junior year with a 24.0 scoring mark. He led the Galloping Ghosts to three straight district titles. By the time he graduated, he had scored a school-record 2,454 career points to go along with 1,012 rebounds.
Gratsy uses Dixon as an example today for all of Abington’s athletes. “What I tell them is you don’t just become that way by being an okay player,” he says. “Something makes you special. His work ethic made him totally special. His parents didn’t have to say, ‘Eric, you better do this, or you better do that.’ He took it upon himself and he became the player that he is.”
“His work ethic made him totally special. His parents didn’t have to say, ‘Eric, you better do this, or you better do that.’ He took it upon himself and he became the player that he is.”
Charles Gratsy, Eric Dixon’s former high school coach
Dixon took the same approach upon entering Villanova as a freshman in 2019. With the Wildcats a year removed from their second national title in three seasons, Dixon redshirted his first season to focus on getting better and stronger. He had a bit part as a redshirt freshman in 2020–21, averaging 3.0 points and 1.6 rebounds in 21 games off the bench and then a bigger role when the Wildcats made the Final Four in Wright’s final season at the helm, starting all 38 games and averaging 9.1 points and 6.4 rebounds.
Just as in high school, Dixon improved each season, raising his scoring average to 15.4 points as a junior and to 16.6 last season. Dixon declared for the NBA draft last spring but withdrew in late May. Scouts loved his shooting and scoring ability, his IQ, toughness, character and loyalty, but they wanted to see him score in different ways, especially facing the basket, and become more of a playmaker.
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Once his morning workouts were done, Dixon headed back to Villanova for more strength, conditioning or on-court drills. “He comes in, you tell him what he has to do and he’ll do it,” says Villanova sports performance coach Justin McClelland. “If you ever challenge him to do more, he’s always going to step up to the challenge.”
In the training room, Dixon exhausts every tool at his disposal, calling on associate athletic trainer Dan Erickson early and often to get him ready for each day. In Dixon, Erickson sees the same focused, single-minded approach to improvement as NBA players like Nikola Vučević and Serge Ibaka, whom he helped train while working for the Orlando Magic. Erickson points out that both players had long careers with minimal injuries. He likewise credits Dixon’s training habits for allowing him to be available for every game and missing just one practice, a September preseason workout in Dixon’s sophomore year, during the trainer’s four years at Villanova. “I really think that’s because of his maturity and owning doing all of the little things,” Erickson says.
Dixon takes his regimen so seriously that he will text McClelland or Erickson pictures of his plate when off campus, asking if there’s anything he needs to add or subtract from his meal. “He’s like a well-rounded machine,” McClelland says.
Villanova has made progress the last couple weeks, but there is a long way to go and much work to be done if the Wildcats are going to get back to the NCAA Tournament. If it’s a matter of working hard, Dixon will make sure it gets done. “This,” Gratsy says, “is the Eric Dixon he wanted to be.”
Aaron Bracy has covered sports in Philadelphia for the Associated Press and several other outlets for nearly three decades. His website, Big5Hoops.com, is a leading voice for coverage of the Philadelphia Big 5. His first book, A Soaring Season: The Incredible, Inspiring Story of the 2003–04 Saint Joseph’s Hawks (Brookline), will be available wherever books are sold on March 1, 2025. It can be preordered by clicking HERE. Follow Bracy on social media by clicking HERE. Contact him by email: aaron@big5hoops.com.
