Having led Pitt to its second Big East title in March, it was time for Jamie Dixon to have a third visit with the Senior Men's Club.

Dixon, the head coach of the Panthers' men's basketball team for the last five seasons, was at the Sewickley Valley YMCA on Friday morning, talking to the members about his basketball team and a variety of other topics during an entertaining question-and-answer session.

"I enjoy coming out here. It's an easy drive in and Friday morning works well," Dixon said.

"The bottom line is, I like getting to talk with all the veterans and enjoy the men here. I did another event the other day for kids, and it's the same way, you always want to do what you can for kids, and the same goes for veterans."

Dixon talked about some of the other events he's appeared at since the end of last season, commenting that May and June might be his busiest months, with the volume of engagements he attends.

He doesn't mind, however, preferring to look at his busy schedule as a positive.

"I guess it's a good thing, because people wouldn't want me to come talk if we weren't winning games," Dixon joked.

Dixon's appearance, like those of the other Senior Men's Club speakers, was arranged by program director Paul Collier.

The Pitt coach praised Collier for his persistence in helping to arrange the appearance, as did the SMC's current president, Don Brainerd.

"Paul is so good at lining up the speakers and he gets great programs for us. Everybody enjoys what he puts together," Brainerd said.

"I hope he continues to do it, because if he gets tired of setting up these programs, it's going to be tough to get somebody with both the contacts and enthusiasm he has."

One of the popular topics for Dixon on Friday was the recent rise in high-profile basketball players coming from the Pittsburgh area.

Dixon heaped praise on his team's freshman center, DeJuan Blair, a Schenley High School product that Dixon called "the first guy we had to get from Pittsburgh."

The coach was also asked about Ohio State-bound quarterback Terrelle Pryor, a former Pitt basketball target, and about Aliquippa's two-sport star Jonathan Baldwin, a familiar foe to the area's high school teams and now a member of the Pitt football team.

"The discussion is open for Jonathan to play both sports," Dixon said. "It's a very difficult thing to do at our level. The football season is so long now and the basketball season starts earlier."

Asked about Moon guard Brian Walsh, who committed to Xavier before his senior season, Dixon said he thought Walsh would be a good fit for the Musketeers and commented on his own team's recruitment of the Tigers' star.

"He's a good player, but you can't take everybody. Things like position and the number of scholarships available come into play. There's a lot of good players that end up at different places for different reasons, and he's definitely one of them," Dixon said.

Most importantly, Dixon said to the club, is that only one four-year player during his tenure at Pitt has failed to graduate.

That, coupled with talent that has them as a pre-season Top 5 team in some early rankings, gives Dixon more than enough reason to be happy about his Pitt program.