Dennis Gates on Rob Dillingham: "Probably the best isolation player in college basketball."

Rob Dillingham didn’t earn his “shifty” moniker by accident — he got it by being one of the toughest players to guard in all of high school basketball. Now 14 games into his freshman college season at Kentucky, not much has changed.

“What I see is this. I see some great one-on-one players (on Kentucky) who can make shots and you start with Rob Dillingham. He’s probably the best isolation player in college basketball,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said after Dillingham scored a game-high 23 points on his team Tuesday night. “That’s what I believe.”

Gates’ belief certainly passes the eye test. Dillingham is an incredibly tough cover when it’s just him and the defender in front of him. There are too many dribble moves in his bag for even above-average defenders to keep up with.

Dillingham was nearly perfect in Kentucky’s 90-77 win over Missouri, shooting 6-7 from the field, 3-3 from long range, and 8-10 from the free throw line in just 19 minutes. Dillingham’s ability to change speeds so quickly with the ball in his hands makes it so he can get to his spots almost every trip down the floor. If you manage to stop him from shooting the three-ball, he can use his added muscle to get inside and score from difficult angles. Don’t forget about his passing ability, either.

ROB DILLINGHAM HAD HIMSELF A NIGHT ⭐️

23 PTS
6/7 FG
3/3 3PT
2 AST
2 STL
2 BLK pic.twitter.com/oO857wJJ4u

— Overtime (@overtime) January 10, 2024

But there’s still a clear give-and-take with Dillingham’s approach. On Tuesday night, it wasn’t even poor shot selection that drove the Kentucky coaches mad — it was the unnecessary fouls, which have become an odd trend for him. He had four fouls against Missouri, picking up his third and fourth within a three-minute span during the second half. Dillingham’s 35 personal fouls this season are the most on the team. Six times this season has he finished a game with at least four fouls.

Then there’s the turnovers, which come in waves and even got him benched against Illinois State over a week ago. He’s up to a team-high 26 turnovers this season, but on the flip side, his 57 assists rank second-highest behind only Reed Sheppard‘s 58. You take the good with the bad when it comes to Dillingham, because the good is so much fun.

“He knows I love him. I love coaching him,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said. “And I gotta take some of the stuff that he does and just *bites hand*. But he’s as good as they get to go get baskets and get fouled.”

With Dillingham, the good is simply too good to dock him points for the bad, no matter how much Calipari wants to — he knows that Dillingham’s greatness can only be actualized if it’s let loose.

Think about this: when Dillingham is the pick-and-roll ball handler, he’s averaging 1.122 points per possession, according to Synergy, which ranks him in the nation’s 93rd percentile. Whenever he turns the corner on those screens, he’s practically going into an isolation situation. And when he does, he sure is tough to guard.