The Missouri Tigers are 11-0 and off to an incredibly hot start, and the Columbia Tribune’s Steve Walentik profiled the role of guard Michael Dixon in the fast start. Dixon scored 30 points off the bench in yesterday’s 94-56 victory over William and Mary and Walentik said coach Frank Haith attributes Dixon’s success to a matchup advantage:
"Frank Haith believes it’s an advantage to bring Mike Dixon off the Missouri basketball team’s bench. Haith can unleash the junior guard about the time his coaching counterpart is inserting his reserves.“Mike Dixon’s like a starter, so he’s playing against other teams’ subs,” Haith said. “I like that matchup. That’s a good matchup.”"
Dixon’s starting experience from his previous years, and it helps the Tigers greatly because they barely miss a beat when starters come out of the game. A large part of the Tigers’ tremendous start has been the ability of all kinds of players to fill whatever role they need to fill. Dixon, though not even starting, is an extremely valuable sixth man and a key cog in the Tigers’ fast-paced machine.