EVANSTON – Iowa women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder loves everything about Melissa Dixon’s game.

The Hawkeyes coach appreciates Dixon’s talent – her ability to shoot 3-pointers, her quick release, her defensive work – but she equally values Dixon’s total lack of pretense.

Early in the season, senior guard Jaime Printy was returning from tearing her left ACL as a junior, and Dixon, who started the first three games, took it all in stride. Now, Bluder sees Dixon as a lock for the Big Ten Conference’s Sixth Player of the Year.