Robert Dillingham discusses team chemistry, competitiveness

Kentucky has impressed in more ways than one during their time in Toronto playing in the GLOBL Jam. That’s especially true when it comes to their mindset of selflessness in order to help the team win.

Freshman guard Rob Dillingham was the latest Wildcat to express that sentiment after the Wildcats beat Team Africa by a score of 104-92 on Saturday. Individually, the former four-star guard’s minutes have gone down in each of UK’s three exhibitions. However, he says it doesn’t bother him at all because of their overall buy-in to let whoever’s playing the best go out and help the team win.

“It’s been a little while (since I had to sit this much). But, honestly, it’s just trusting Coach Cal and knowing the process,” Dillingham admitted. “Like, maybe today wasn’t my day. And, obviously, the people in the game? That was the moment. DJ (Wagner) was getting buckets, Reed (Sheppard) was getting buckets. So I wasn’t really having a problem sitting on the bench.”

“I wanted to get in the game,” said Dillingham. “But it’s like, if they’re playing better, why would I force myself and be mad? We’re a team.”

Dillingham went on to say that that trust in one another comes from their relationships that have already formed. His willingness to defer to others comes from the love and respect that they’ve already formed in their short time together even though, personally, he wishes he was out there in the end too.

“It definitely helps a lot because we’ve got a great relationship off the court,” said Dillingham. “We all love each other, we’ve all got a competitive nature. So we do want to play but it doesn’t really matter. Whoever’s playing the best should be in the game.”

Dillingham opened the GLOBL Jam in Canada by playing 17 minutes off the bench. Then, as a starter versus the Canadians in the second game, that number fell to just over 10 minutes. In Kentucky’s latest outing against BAL Select, it then dwindled again to just off of nine minutes.

Even so, Dillingham doesn’t seem like he could care less. The Wildcats are 3-0, regardless of how much he has played, and will play in the gold medal matchup on Sunday night. Considering that’s the result for the team and his teammates have played well to get them to that stage, that success is all that matters to him.