Melissa Dixon is Hawkeyes’ sweet shooter

IOWA CITY - You see that stroke, that blink-and-you-missed-it release. You see the 3-point record that fell Sunday in Des Moines, and the career mark that will be eclipsed soon.

You see that grin. You can't help but see that trademark grin that opens a window to a sunny disposition.

In hindsight, you figure Melissa Dixon was destined to be a Hawkeye from the start.

'It all seems like a no-brainer now, doesn't it?” said Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder.

At the time, it wasn't.

At the time, well, it was complicated. It gets that way sometimes with recruiting.

Dixon had scholarship offers from DePaul, Marquette and Vanderbilt, among other schools. She wanted to come to Iowa.

'Everywhere else I visited, there was a thing here or there that I was unsure about,” Dixon said. 'Iowa, it had absolutely everything I wanted.”

Everything, except a scholarship. Bluder had one left for the recruiting class of 2011, and was saving it for Kiah Stokes, a high school All-American at Linn-Mar.

'Melissa contacted us early, but we had shooters and felt like we didn't need her,” Bluder said. 'We told her dad, ‘Your daughter's really good, but we're probably going to go another direction.'”

Dixon was an AAU teammate of Samantha Logic, a McDonald's All-American who Iowa had already landed. The more the Iowa staff saw Midwest Elite play, the more it saw Dixon shoot.

'We knew she was a good shooter,” Bluder said. 'After we saw her play, we determined she was a great shooter.”

Iowa offered Dixon a grayshirt, which Dixon accepted. Then, once Stokes committed to Connecticut, the scholarship was Dixon's.

'I got a text saying, ‘Guess who's going to be a Hawkeye with you the next four years,'” Logic said. 'I was so excited, and I could tell she was, too.”

Since arriving on campus, Dixon has been one of the program's best outside snipers in Iowa history.

She ranks No. 2 on Iowa's career 3-pointer list, with 252, needing nine more to reach Lindsey Meder's record.

That won't take much longer. Dixon hit 10 of 14 shots from long range in the Hawkeyes' 100-98 victory at Drake on Sunday, breaking the school's single-game record. Nobody had made more than seven treys in a game - Dixon had done it twice.

Her 31 points Sunday was one short of her personal best.

It takes time to launch a 3-pointer. Set the feet, square the shoulders, eye the basket, let if fly.

For Dixon, it takes less time than most.

'Nobody's got a quicker release,” Logic said. 'Maggie Lucas (of Penn State) was right there.

'It's annoying to practice against her. You think you're right there on her, and you're not.”

Dixon gets it off fast because, as a young girl, she had to.

'Growing up, playing against your brothers and their friends - more athletic guys - you only have a second or two to get it off,” Dixon said. 'Like our coaches teach us, you have to have your feet ready when you catch the ball.”

The eldest of Scott and Cindy Dixon's three children, Mike Dixon is 15 months older than Melissa and a grade ahead of her in school. He let Melissa play ball with him and his friends. But they didn't take it easy on her.

'She had to get her shot off quick, or it was going to get blocked,” Mike said.

Bluder said, 'We always try to stress a quick release. She came here with that.”

Dixon tore her meniscus midway through her freshman year at Iowa, and missed seven games. Soon after she returned, she was a starter.

Thrust into the lineup after Jaime Printy tore her ACL, Dixon scored 19 points in her first game as a starter, a win at Indiana.

She has been a steady contributor since. With Printy back as a starter, Dixon earned Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year honors as a sophomore, averaging 10.1 points per game, then upped that rate to 13.1 points per game as a full-time starter last season.

This year, she is shooting 47.7 percent (42 of 88) from long distance and scoring at a 14.6-point clip.

Growing up in Johnsburg, Ill., a northwest suburban Chicago village, Dixon developed her quick-fire, accurate shot. And she earned a nickname in the Dixon household.

Sweetie.

'It's because she's a very, very nice girl,” her older brother said. 'Off the court, you wouldn't think she's a stud basketball player.”

Sunny. That's the best way to describe her. On the cover of the Hawkeyes' media guide, fellow seniors Logic, Bethany Doolittle and Kathryn Reynolds sit, stone-faced. With Dixon, there's a twinkle and a hint that a grin isn't far away and probably is being consciously stifled.

'When you're around her, you can't help but smile,” Bluder said. 'She's got this big grin. You can't help but hug her. She's a huggable kid.”

That's the way she was raised, Dixon said.

'My whole family, they're positive people,” she said. 'And playing here ... it's fun to be part of this program. I have so much to be happy about.”

The 20th-ranked Hawkeyes (9-2) open Big Ten play at 2 p.m. Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Penn State (3-8). It's Dixon's last tour of the league, and she wants to make it count.

'The ultimate goal is a Big Ten championship. We've been close,” she said. 'And I want to make it to the Sweet 16 (of the NCAA tournament). We've been to the second round. We want to get over that hump.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com