Dixon and Pittsburgh Agree to an Extension

Jamie Dixon is staying as Pittsburgh’s basketball coach, agreeing Saturday to a contract extension after Arizona State and Missouri had approached him following the Panthers’ elimination from the NCAA tournament last weekend.

Dixon, one of the Big East Conference’s lower-paid coaches during his first three seasons, will move closer to being one of the conference’s higher-paid coaches. He previously made between $500,000 and $600,000 a season in salary under a contract that ran through 2010. The new deal runs through the 2012-13 season and is believed to boost him closer to the $800,000- to $900,000-a-year level next season.

The 40-year-old Dixon, a North Hollywood native who was a standout player at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High, is 76-22 at Pitt and will return eight of the top 10 players from this season’s 25-8 team in 2006-07.

The Panthers won their first 15 games this season, advanced to the Big East tournament championship game and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament before being upset by Bradley, 72-66, last Sunday.

“Jamie has proven he was the right person for our head coaching position three years ago and continues to be the right person today,” Athletic Director Jeff Long said.

The signing ended several days of speculation that, like former Pitt coach Ben Howland’s departure for UCLA in 2003, Dixon might be lured away by a school closer to his West Coast roots. Dixon is believed to have had several days of discussions with Arizona State about replacing Rob Evans.

*

Idaho assistant coach George Pfeifer will take over the struggling basketball program, school officials said.

Pfeifer, an assistant at Idaho last season and the former coach at NAIA Division I Lewis-Clark State College in nearby Lewiston, Idaho, will be offered a three-year contract, Athletic Director Rob Spear said.

The 51-year-old Pfeifer has been heading the program since Leonard Perry was fired hours after Idaho’s season-ending loss to Nevada in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament on March 9.

*

David Zellmann scored 26 points and Winona State dominated defensively to win the NCAA Division II national championship with a 73-61 win over defending champion Virginia Union at Springfield, Mass.

“I know I always pride myself on defense because that’s what wins championships,” said sophomore guard Jonte Flowers, who had 15 points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.

The win was the 22nd consecutive for the Minnesota school.