In the previous four seasons before his appointment as Pitt's head coach, Dixon worked as Ben Howland's associate coach and was a key factor in the school's drastic improvement in recruiting over those years that turned the program into a nationally-ranked power that won the Big East West championship in 2002 and was the first Panther team to advance to the Sweet Sixteen since the 1973-74 team.

Dixon served as an assistant coach with Ben Howland at California-Santa Barbara from 1991 to 1992. He then went to Hawaii to serve as an assistant from 1992 to 1994. At Northern Arizona from 1994 to 1998, Dixon was an assistant to head coach Ben Howland. He then returned to Hawaii as an assistant coach from 1992 to 1998, before coming to Pittsburgh to work with Howland again.

Dixon is a North Hollywood native who attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, and was awarded All-Del Rey League and All-California Interscholastic Federation honors for his basketball play. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration - Finance degree at Texas Christian University in 1987. Over his college basketball career, he led the Horned Frogs to two Southwest Conference titles (junior and senior years). Dixon was an All-SWC honoree and a four-time All-SWC Academic selection. He earned a Masters of Science-Economics at UC-Santa Barbara in 1992.