Mikey Dixon and Peter Kiss come from two different basketball backgrounds, but they’re finding unbounding success at Quinnipiac as a dynamic duo as first year players. Dixon, this year’s MAAC Rookie of the Year and seven-time MAAC Rookies of the Week, there’s more of them to come. Photographs by Emma Robertson
After a challenging last season and the loss of some prominent players due to transfer and graduation, the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team needed something fresh for their 2016-17 season.
Along with transfer players Reggie Oliver, Phil Winston, Ja’Kwan Jones, and Cam Young, Tom Moore recruited two new freshmen that have already made names for themselves on the team as well as in the Quinnipiac community.
Walking around campus, you may see Mikey Dixon and Peter Kiss in the cafeteria with their teammates, hanging out together in their dorm room or swinging by the Bobcat Den for a late night snack. Like most of the basketball team, they are familiar faces on campus and have a strong social connection with the student body.
Roommates as well as teammates, the duo is practically inseparable. Nevertheless, Dixon and Kiss know when the fun ends and the work begins; the pair has a unique bond that has translated into their game.
Their emotional bond ensued instantly when they became roommates. They oftentimes refer to each other as “brother,” and have formed a very close relationship. Their chemistry on the court however, was almost forced together. Despite playing roughly the same amount of minutes, with similar averages in points per game, Kiss and Dixon come from two completely different basketball backgrounds. Entering the season, their individual determination to make an immediate impact was their only real similarity on the court.
Kiss grew up in New York, New York and attended high school at Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts. He said he was drawn to Quinnipiac primarily because of the welcoming coaching staff, the proximity to home and because of a confidence that he could help earn the team a championship in his four years.
Coming in, Kiss wasn’t expecting any instant prestige. However, after earning several MAAC Freshman of the Week awards, his widespread admiration around the conference became obvious.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting anything,” he admitted. “I just wanted to be a part of a team that could win and we are working towards that.”
He and Dixon work hard in practice but are still adjusting to the transition from high school to Division I play.
“It’s a long season and you really have to take care of your body,” Dixon said. “You have to bring it every day.”
Peter said that one of his biggest takeaways thus far has been buckling down and focusing.
“I just stay focused in every game and stay focused both offensively and defensively. I think it’s a really huge thing and I learned a lot of that this year.”
Kiss had an active childhood and played a variety of sports, but didn’t pick up competitive basketball until his sophomore year of high school.
“He started playing competitively his sophomore year,” his mother, Ida, explained. “When he was growing up, he played a little bit of everything. He was an active kid. But with all the sports he was playing, basketball he loved the most. He started playing and his coach noticed that he was very good at it, so he started working hard and he finally got to this point.”
Peter began his scholastic career at Monsignor Scanlan High School in the Bronx and was a second-team all-league selection as a junior at Victory Rock Prep School in Florida, but eventually finished out his senior year at Notre Dame Prep, where he was an instant standout and landed offers from other Division I programs like Fordham and Tulsa. Despite only having three years of competitive basketball experience, he was ranked at No. 19 in the state of New York according to ESPN’s recruiting database.
Peter’s parents are exceptionally proud of their son’s accomplishments at Quinnipiac.
“Peter, you know, has really loved playing basketball. He works very, very hard and he is getting better and better and better,” Mrs. Kiss said. “We are very proud of Peter and very happy for his success.”
Unlike his roommate, Mikey has known that he wanted to play basketball his entire life. Though both have worked relentlessly to get where they are today, their paths leading up to Division I were completely different.
Mikey started playing basketball when he was three, before he even started attending kindergarten.
His father Lawrence Dixon has been one of his biggest supporters since the beginning.
“At the Girls and Boys Club in Delaware, they do a draft like the NBA draft,” he explained. “They get all the kids to do drills and I remember that day vividly. There were about 200 kids and [Mikey] was the last kid picked. He was always the smallest kid on the court, and he always kept that in the back of his mind.”
He said that being picked last that day put a chip on Mikey’s shoulder, and it motivated him to become a better player.
“He started playing AAU in the small state of Delaware. Here he was, the smallest kid in the smallest state, and he always said he wanted to prove that he was bigger.”
In middle school, Mikey watched as kids he grew up with went off to play college basketball and he made it his goal to do the same. He attended the highly touted Sanford School in Delaware and played for Stan Waterman, who’s coached boy’s basketball at the Sanford School for over 25 years.
“He knew that by playing under him, he’d be able to get to college hoops,” Lawrence said.
In Mikey’s freshman year at Sanford, his team made it to the state championship and lost. His sophomore year, they made it to the quarter-finals and lost. Junior year, they made it to the semi-finals and lost.
“He was very under recruited,” said Mr. Dixon. “He didn’t get a growth spurt until later on. So here we have a small kid from a small state not getting many looks.”
The summer going into his senior year, however, Mr. Dixon worked with Mikey on his conditioning skills and mastering his jump shot.
“It was me, him and his younger brother,” he said. “We worked in 95 degree heat and worked on his jump shot. He had no YMCA or fancy facilities.” That summer, he finally started getting some looks.
Lawrence said his son wanted to know where he would be attending school before his senior year started so he could focus on winning the state championship.
“He wanted to pick a school before his senior year started, and Quinnipiac showed a lot of interest.”
In Mikey’s senior year at Sanford, his team won the state championship and he was named the Delaware State Player of the Year, averaging 27.1 points per game in his final campaign.
“None of this was given to him,” Mr. Dixon reiterated. “It was earned.”
Like Peter, Mikey felt that he, too, could make a difference at Quinnipiac.
“I think the future at Quinnipiac is very bright for us,” Mikey said. “I think we’ll do some big things over the next three years. We have a good core group with me, Pete, the twins, and Dulli. We’ve been playing together for some time now, so we have good chemistry. I think we have a chance to be something special in years to come.”
Head coach Tom Moore of the men’s basketball team has nothing but praise for his two freshman standouts. The two players display both tough-mindedness and fortitude on and off the court.
When Kiss had joined the Bobcats, Moore said, “Peter Kiss is an outstanding addition to our program. He has great size and length for a perimeter player.”
From the get-go, Kiss was expected to do great things. But in the season opener against the University of Vermont, the Dixon addition got a lot of recognition after the two scored a combined 16 points in the second half. They just clicked, and their congruence has only strengthened as the season has progressed.
Now added to the starting lineup, it’s become clear that the two have surfaced as the ‘guiding lights’ on what was almost a sinking ship.
When the pair had first signed with Quinnipiac last fall, Moore was faced with a new identity that his 2015-16 team did not have. He was given two players who had similar ideals, but were built from two completely different experiences. In their short time here, Peter Kiss and Mikey Dixon have used their similarities and good chemistry to their advantage. Through that, they have overcome their common plight as freshmen to become the new, fresh faces of Quinnipiac basketball.
They were forced to play a new game.
