Rob Dillingham opens up on adjustment from high school to Kentucky

Kentucky freshman guard Rob Dillingham is one of few players so far to try and make the jump from the Overtime Elite league to college hoops, and he’s trying to do it at a blue blood powerhouse. Of course, the change is immense. However, so far, Dillingham is loving the coaching he’s getting from John Calipari. He even revealed when speaking to the media the other day that he’s never had coaching near as good as Cal’s.

“It’s just basically different in like the coaches,” Dillingham said of the biggest change from Overtime Elite to college. “Coach Cal like actually coaches us and he tells us, like, from past players, because he’s coached so many players. So it’s just honestly like he’s coaching us different than any coach I’ve really ever had.”

Pretty strong praise for the head coach already from the youngster. He says he gets actual coaching from John Calipari, who relies on his vast history of former great players to show each new young group the ropes.

Next, Dillingham was asked what the coaches have had him work on thus far. His answer:

“I would say just the shot-taking, the dribbling, more of like a proper game. Knowing that we got a lot of players so you can’t disrespect other players by taking a lot of shots, because a lot of players can shoot the ball. It’s really just taking the right shots and playing defense and learning each other and all respecting each other.”

That’s an interesting comment about how to be unselfish as a player. Dillingham later reiterated that point that he needs to focus on taking only good shots so that he doesn’t take away opportunities from Kentucky’s other talented players.

“Eliminating dribbles, taking better shots not contested shots,” Dillingham continued. “Like I said, you can’t really disrespect our players by taking a lot of crazy shots because we got a lot of players that can all shoot the ball. Really just taking great shots for real and eliminating dribbles.”

One of the criticisms of Rob Dillingham’s game at previous levels was that he would get a little too trigger-happy with the ball in his hands. But then again, he probably wasn’t surrounded by as talented of a supporting cast like he is now in Lexington. Either way, it sounds like the teenaged guard is learning to how play more unselfish basketball in his first few weeks with Kentucky.