Nate Dixon rejoined Ryan Odom’s staff for the 2016-17 season after serving as the new Retriever bench boss’ associate head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2015-16. He previously worked alongside Coach Odom at Charlotte.
During the first three years in Baltimore, Dixon has helped lead the Retrievers to three 20 win seasons and two trips to the America East Tournament Championship game. In 2018-19, UMBC finished with a 21-13 record earning a return trip to the America East Championship game.
In 2020-21, UMBC earned their first America East Regular Season title since the 2007-08 season, earning the number one seed in the America East Playoffs finishing the season with a 14-6 record.
The Retrievers concluded the 2019-20 season with the four-seed in the America East Tournament, ultimately falling to Vermont in the semifinals.
In 2017-18, the Retrievers made history by winning their first America East Championship since 2008 on a buzzer-beater against Vermont. That would spark a historic run for the Retrievers that saw them become the first 16 seed to upset a one seed in the NCAA Tournament with a 74-54 win against overall one seed Virginia. He coached Jairus Lyles, who finished his career with the Retrievers second all-time in scoring and who is currently with the Salt Lake Stars of the NBA G League.
During the course of his four years in Baltimore, Dixon has helped recruit K.J. Maura who went on to be named to the America East All-Defensive Team twice and Defensive Player of the Year during his two years with the Retrievers. Along with Maura, Dixon has helped recruit all-conference performers in K.J. Jackson (2x All-Conference Second Team, 2x All-Defensive Team), Daniel Akin (All-Rookie Team), and R.J. Eytle-Rock (All-Rookie Team). Also during his tenure with the Retrievers, Dixon helped mentor Joe Sherburne, who was named 2018-19 Academic All-America Team Member of the Year as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
UMBC reached 20 wins in a season for the third time in 30 years and first since 2007-08 in 2016-17 reaching the semifinals of the CIT Tournament, ultimately falling to Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
Prior to his stint in Hickory, N.C. at Lenoir-Rhyne, Dixon spent the previous four years at Charlotte, where he served the team's Technology and Scouting Assistant. He served for one year as an assistant men's basketball coach at Wyoming (2010-11).
During his lone season in Wyoming, Dixon helped the Cowboys to the third-best APR improvement in the country from the previous year.
Before Wyoming, Dixon coached at several other NCAA Division I schools, including Louisiana-Lafayette (2009-10), New Orleans (2007-09), Louisiana-Monroe (2005-07), Florida (2003-05) and Stetson (2001-03).
In Lafayette, he coached the Sun Belt Player of the Year, while helping the Ragin' Cajuns to a 9-0 home conference record in 2009-10. Before that, he spent two years at New Orleans where he mentored Bo McCalebb, who is currently the Sun Belt's All-Time Leading Scorer. The Privateers also earned two power five wins in those two years.
At Louisiana-Monroe, the Warhawks won the Sun Belt West Division Championship in their first season the league in 2006-07. They were picked to finish last in the Sun Belt preseason polls that year and ended the season 14-0 at home. He recruited Tony Hopper (a three-time All-Sun Belt player and CBS Southland Freshman of the Year) and Jonas Brown (2007 Louisiana Newcomer of the Year). Hopper finished his career ranked first in steals, second in three-pointers made, sixth in scoring and seventh in assists in school history.
During his two-year stint with Florida, the Gators won the 2005 Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship while Dixon coached several future NBA players including David Lee, Corey Brewer, Al Horford and Joakim Noah. He also helped land a tremendous recruiting class at Florida that went on to win back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.
Dixon's NCAA Division II stops as an assistant coach included Belmont Abbey (1997-98) and Queens (1998-00) while the Royals went to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 in consecutive seasons during his two years at the Charlotte, N.C., school.
In all, Dixon has been a part of six conference championship teams - regular season and postseason combined - and helped lead four teams to the NCAA Tournament (two at Division I and two at Division II). Dixon has also been rated as one of the top mid-major assistants by both Basketball Times and HoopScoop Online and has also served on the National Association of Basketball Coaches' (NABC) Board of Directors from 1998 to 2001 and again for a second stint from 2016 to the present day.
Dixon has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2020 TopConnect Virtual Seminar. TopConnect (formerly Villa 7) originated in 2003 by then VCU Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, identifies the top basketball assistant coaches in the country, and connects them with mid-major Athletic Directors providing tremendous networking opportunities for both parties. He also participated in 2018 and 2019.
The native of Sparta, N.C. played one year at LaGrange (Ga.) and two seasons at Gardner-Webb in addition to three summers with the Jersey Shore Pro-Am. He graduated from UNC Wilmington in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in communications.
Dixon and his wife, the former Kristin Fabrizio, have two sons, Walker and Hunter.
