Rob Dillingham says Canada trip will help him gel with teammates

Ahead of their trip to Toronto to take part in the GLOBL JAM 2023 showcase, some of the Kentucky Wildcats players stopped and had a chat with KSR. One of the incoming freshmen from their highly touted 2023 recruiting class, combo guard Robert Dillingham, shared his thoughts on Kentucky’s trip to Canada and how he believes it will help him with next season.

“I feel like, honestly, ‘cause we’re playing older dudes, it’s gonna help me gel with the team way more,” said Dillingham. “And honestly, even if we win or lose, it’s just like we’re playing older dudes, so it really just gives us a standing of where we’re at. We’ve been working for this whole month; we’ve just been grinding every day. So I feel like we’ll honestly do alright. But even if we don’t, it’s just the combination of the team because we’re playing grown men. So I feel like we’ll definitely learn each other even more.”

Dillingham was the No. 15 nationally ranked player in the 2023 recruiting class, according to On3’s Industry Ranking. The Charlotte, NC, native spent one season with the Overtime Elite League before joining head coach John Calipari at Kentucky.

With Dillingham’s brief stint with the Cold Hearts of Overtime Elite, he already has some experience in competing at a professional level. And that experience should help him in Toronto. But the most essential part of the trip for Dillingham is developing camaraderie with his teammates in preparation for the upcoming college basketball season. Doing so should go a long way towards Kentucky reclaiming their spot at the top of the SEC conference and possibly leading to a national championship.

John Calipari provides update ahead of Kentucky’s international trip

Ahead of the trip, head coach John Calipari provided an update on the team’s status. The Wildcats’ headman also gave fans the rundown of the last few days for the program in Lexington, KY.

“We had our last practice in Lexington today before we leave for Toronto, and it was great to have Jim Host and PG Peeples join us! For all his fans, PG looked great and had a clean bill of health,” wrote Calipari via Twitter. “Tonight, we’ll have a team dinner and talk about our upcoming trip. We have a team right now that is learning, having fun, encouraging each other, and being really coachable. Practice has been a lot of fun so far, and they are working hard.

“But we are heading to play in an event that will require us to be even more physical and compete even harder against these older players. There will be grabbing and physicality. That’s FIBA basketball. Will we be physical enough and have enough fight to compete? Baylor went 1-4 in this event last year so we know the challenge. There’s going to be a lot of randomness to how we play but we are a really unselfish group and can score in a variety of ways. I’m so excited to learn more about our team!!”

GLOBL JAM is a showcase tournament that was created by Sportsnet and Canada Basketball with the goal in mind of allowing young Canadian players the opportunity to go head-to-head with some of the world’s best players under 23. There will be both a women’s and men’s tournament and Calipari Wildcats will represent the USA for the men’s side.