Rob Dillingham addresses coming off bench at Kentucky: 'You gotta play with a chip on your shoulder'

Rob Dillingham had a large role on the Kentucky basketball team during his only season with the Wildcats, finishing second on the team in scoring at 15.2 points per game.

Dillingham did an impressive job of putting the ball through the hoop, despite making only one start during the 32 games he appeared in.

Ahead of this week’s NBA Draft, Dillingham spoke with Shams Charania about his time at Kentucky and what it was like coming off the bench.

“At first it was a little difficult, but over time you’ve got to grow into it and you’ve gotta play with a chip on your shoulder and play basketball and understand that when you get in the game, you’ve got to perform, and if you don’t, you won’t get no more time,” Rob Dillingham said.

Dillingham joined Kentucky ahead of the 2023-24 season after being ranked as the No. 16 overall player in the country in the class of 2023, per the On3 Industry rankings.

He shot 47.5 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from 3-point range and nearly 80 percent from the free-throw line this past season. Still, he was fifth on the team in minutes per game at 23.3.

There were some who felt like Rob Dillingham deserved more playing time, but he had the mindset to embrace his role and do what he could to help the Wildcats win.

“I look at it and I just try to go into the game and do what the coach wants me to do in the time he wants me to do it,” Dillingham said. “So I never looked at it like I’m not as good. I just looked at it as motivation to go out there, and I get to watch the players play before I go in. So they’d be a little tired when I go in. That’s how I looked at it and I tried to keep that same mindset the whole year.”

Dillingham and the Wildcats finished the 2023-24 season with a 23-10 record. That included a loss to Oakland in the NCAA Tournament, which ended Dillingham’s time at Kentucky and his college career.

James Fletcher of On3 released his latest mock draft on Monday and he has Dillingham landing with the Miami Heat at pick No. 15.

People seem to be split on Dillingham as a pro prospect due to the fact that he is an elite scorer but also inconsistent in some areas, which kept him from getting more minutes at Kentucky.