University of Pittsburgh basketball coach Jamie Dixon's eyes moistened as he gazed at the interior of the Stan Sheriff Center court. The University of Hawai'i's Lower Campus, after all, was a significant stopover in the remarkable but brief basketball life of his best friend.

"Maggie was a camper," said Dixon, a featured speaker at the Rainbow Warrior Basketball Camp, of his younger sister. "She came out for this camp. She enjoyed it."

Maggie Dixon, head coach of the U.S. Military Academy's women's basketball team, died unexpectedly of a malfunctioned heart valve in April. Yesterday, Jamie Dixon returned to the campus where he had served separate stints as a part-time and assistant coach in the 1990s. In 1993, when Dixon was working for the NCAA-maximum annual salary of $12,000 for a part-time coach, he invited his younger sister to stay with him and attend the UH camp.

"She hung out with Erika Nash (associate coach Bob Nash's daughter)," Dixon said. "I'm not sure when it really hit her with basketball, but in high school at some point, she decided she wanted to be really good at it and have success at it."

Last fall, a few weeks before the start of the 2005-06 season, Maggie was hired as Army's head coach. She led the Black Knights to their first NCAA Tournament appearance.

"They never won there, never had any success," Dixon said. "All of a sudden she turned it around and went to the NCAA Tournament. There was the game where she was carried off the floor. Everybody remembered this young woman getting carried off the floor and thinking she had everything going for her. She was on top of the world, and she was going to be doing this for a long time. She was handling it so well. She seemed so natural at it. And at 28 ... they see the tragedy two weeks later. It makes people think."

Despite the 12-year age difference, Maggie and Jamie were always close, bonded by their interest in basketball. Dixon built Pittsburgh into a top team in the nation's top conference. Panther home games are played before capacity crowds, and there are 3,000 names on the waiting list for tickets.

In the months before Maggie's death, Dixon recalled, "we were spending so much time together because she had moved to West Point (N.Y.), and I'm in New York all of the time. I was with her that day. I stayed at her house that night. I always stayed at her house. It was shocking, obviously. Anyone who's gone through something like that, you can't begin to explain the pain and the suffering you go through. I feel for my parents and what they're going through."

Maggie's death drew national attention.

"In some way, seeing all of the people talking about her and all of the coverage, I never thought that could make you get through things, but it has," Dixon said. "I've gotten letters from people in Hawai'i — people I knew, people I didn't know — who were were touched by what she had done, and what she had been through."

For now, Dixon is enjoying a rare break from a hectic schedule. Last weekend, he and his wife, Jacqueline, attended her 20th Punahou School reunion. "It was good for her," he said. "I'm just another guy who doesn't know anybody over there. Well, I knew a few. It was fun."

His wife spends a month each year in Hawai'i. Dixon visits for a week each year, making sure to stop by his old office.

"I learned a lot over here," Dixon said. "I've been fortunate being around good coaches. I know how fortunate I was to be here with coach (Riley) Wallace. He's done a great job. You talk to anyone in the country, and he's highly respected."

To his players and colleagues, Dixon often speaks of UH's 1993-94 season. UH opened with three consecutive blowout losses in the Great Alaska Shootout.

"We got hammered," he said. "We played N.C. State and Wake Forest, and (the Deacons) had a guy named Tim Duncan on the bench."

But UH went on to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament, and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

"I tell that story all of the time," Dixon said. "If ever your team is struggling, think about that team, and how that team ended up in the NCAA Tournament."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.