A source close to the Memphis program told Sporting News that Dixon had been cleared to play. Dixon was not allowed to play at Missouri last season after reportedly being accused of sexual assault for a second time, although no criminal charges were filed in either incident.
A 6-1, 190-pound native of Kansas City, Mo., Dixon averaged 13.5 points and 3.3 assists as the Tigers' sixth man during their 30-win season in 2011-12. Sporting News named him a preseason second-team All-America for 2013, but he never played that season. Mizzou announced in November that Dixon would be transferring. He chose the Tigers in June.
Dixon needed the waiver in order to be able to continue playing college basketball, as he'd already spent a "redshirt" year by missing 2012-13. Memphis had some confidence he would be cleared because of the similarity to the case involving Maryland small forward Dez Wells, who was asked to leave Xavier but never charged with a crime. However, Wells had the vehement backing of the Hamilton County prosecutor's office in Cincinnati, who insisted Xavier mishandled Wells' case by dismissing him. Dixon lacked such an advocate, but the school is 100 percent behind him.
"I have every faith in the basketball program and its standards," Memphis interim president Brad Martin said in a statement. "The University is standing up for Michael Dixon and we expect him to exceed our highest expectations. We are glad that he will have the opportunity to complete his degree at Memphis."
Memphis has its top three perimeter players returning from last season's Conference USA champs: point guard Joe Jackson and wings Geron Johnson and Chris Crawford. Like Dixon, all three veterans have shown they can play either shooting guard or point guard at various times.
Coach Josh Pastner spoke to Sporting News following Dixon's arrival about how he would handle such a wealth of backcourt talent.
"Competition is healthy. It will all work itself out. It always does," Pastner said then. "I think he's a very good player. If the waiver goes through, we'll make it all work. We're going to put the best on the floor. We'll manage it. We're going to play fast."
Pastner said one option would be to use all four players at once. He said the Tigers would be "hard guys to guard" using that alignment.
