University of Cincinnati women’s basketball’s Surina Dixon has been elevated to full-time assistant coach after serving much of the 2018-19 season as an interim assistant. Dixon joined head coach Michelle Clark-Heard‘s inaugural UC staff as Director of Basketball Operations in June of 2018.
“I am excited to announce the promotion of Surina Dixon to assistant coach,” said Clark-Heard. “Surina has been an integral part of my staff this past season and has taken on all of the challenges and responsibilities that have been presented to her. My staff has tremendous chemistry and I am looking forward to us continuing to grow together and build the championship culture here at UC.”
A seasoned basketball coach with nearly two decades of coaching experience at the NCAA Division I and II levels, Dixon came to UC following spending six seasons as head coach at Jackson State (JSU).
Prior to posting 82 wins at JSU – including 55 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) victories – Dixon compiled a 67-20 overall record in three seasons as head basketball coach at Southwind High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Earlier, from 2005 to 2007, Dixon was the head coach at Division II Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Under her leadership, Lane’s Lady Dragons achieved a school record by scoring 119 points in a single game while holding the opponent to only 36 points.
Before her time at Lane, Dixon spent four seasons (2000-04) as the head coach at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). While at UMES, she recorded three-straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament first-round wins and graduated her student-athletes at a 99-percent rate.
Previously, in 1999, Dixon served as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Arkansas State University where she helped lead the Lady Indians to their best start in school history and their first top-25 national ranking. Dixon also worked as an assistant coach at Texas Southern University where she helped guide the Lady Tigers to their best finish in over a decade in 1998.
At UC In 2018-19, Dixon aided in the Bearcats’ historic season which featured their most wins (24) in 17 years. UC also advanced to the quarterfinals of the postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) – a program first, won 12 or more conference games for the first time since 1999, posted its highest-ever finish in the American Athletic Conference (third place), and had three or more regular-season conference honorees for the first time since 2003.
