Year in review: Kentucky signee Robert Dillingham makes most of Overtime Elite opportunity

University of Kentucky men’s basketball signee Robert Dillingham’s high school career featured several twists and turns along the way.

He began at Combine Academy in North Carolina, an international boarding school and professional sports performance center that has become a regional and national hoops powerhouse.

Then came a move to Donda Academy, the high-profile California private school that was opened by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West.

Last fall, Dillingham changed programs again after Donda Academy was shut down and Ye became the center of controversy after making antisemitic comments. The end result was Dillingham spending his senior season in Atlanta at Overtime Elite (OTE), a relatively new professional basketball league in Atlanta that offers a prep school-type environment for high school players.

But to say that Dillingham thrived at OTE would be an overstatement.

He played in 14 regular-season games for the Cold Hearts team with per-game averages of 14.7 points, 4.9 assists and 2.5 steals, but Dillingham shot just 33.3% from the field and 31.9% on three-pointers. He also averaged more than three turnovers per game.

Dillingham was completely left off OTE’s regular season awards list.

But come the OTE postseason, Dillingham’s game took off.

In four postseason contests with Cold Hearts, Dillingham averaged 18 points, 6.5 assists and less than three turnovers per game. He shot better than 42% from the field.

This is to say that despite yet another sudden adjustment during his high-profile prep basketball career, Dillingham finally seemed to settle in at Overtime Elite.

While some OTE players have salaried contracts, others like Dillingham signed special deals to allow them to make money through name, image and likeness opportunities while keeping their NCAA eligibility intact.

This is why Dillingham remains part of Kentucky’s top-ranked 2023 recruiting class, and why it matters how Dillingham uses what he’s learned at each of his high school stops once he arrives in Lexington.

“His ball handling and shooting ability is so good that the defenders are always going to be focused on him. So he knows when he’s hot and everybody’s on him, he knows when to hit the next person instead of look for himself, look for others,” Naasir Cunningham, a five-star class of 2024 recruit who was teammates with Dillingham on the Cold Hearts, told the Herald-Leader in February.

“There’s not many point guards that I’ve seen, or that are my age, that are able to score the ball and facilitate at the same time. It’s normally one or the other, but he has a good balance of both.”

These sentiments were echoed in the first public comments made about Dillingham by UK head coach John Calipari, when Kentucky’s 2023 recruiting class was officially announced in November.

“Our best teams have had really good guards and this class has that. Rob has the ability to make good decisions, can create for others or get his own shot,” Calipari said in a news release. “He can make contested layups, which opens the court for him offensively. He is an extremely efficient scorer, but I’m excited about the fact that Rob wants to be pushed by other really good guards on our roster and continue to develop his versatility by playing with or without the ball in his hands.”

Overtime Elite preparing Dillingham for college game

Dillingham is ranked as the No. 2 point guard and the No. 9 player overall in the 2023 recruiting class by the 247Sports Composite.

His reputation as a shifty ball handler preceded his arrival at Overtime Elite, but his time spent in Atlanta also came with a focus on the things that he will have to do at Kentucky to be successful at the college level.

“I just think of the guards that were at Kentucky. No comparison, but what you’re going to have to be at that next level,” Ryan Gomes — the former Providence standout and NBA veteran who coaches the Cold Hearts team that Dillingham played for — told the Herald-Leader in February.

“Where you want to go? What you’re going to have to do? So as a point guard, coaches are looking at how are you guarding in the pick and roll? How are you making other people better? What’s your effort level like? What’s your commitment level like?”

The 6-foot-2, 165-pound Dillingham had growing pains during his lone OTE season, but it’s also important to remember the caliber of player he was facing each night.

Projected NBA Draft lottery picks Amen and Ausar Thompson headlined this year’s group of elite players in the league.

Add in the fact that OTE games in Atlanta are played at the 1,200-capacity OTE Arena in the city’s Atlantic Station neighborhood and broadcast live via either Amazon Prime Video or OTE’s YouTube channel, and you can understand how the last few months have better prepared Dillingham for life as a five-star men’s basketball recruit at Kentucky.

“I think it’s a great prep,” Gomes said. “Even when he was on the AAU trail and when he was at (Donda Academy), players know about other players and what they can do, but you also are confident in yourself more than anything.”

Kentucky 2023 recruiting class update

Dillingham is one of five players set to join Kentucky next season as incoming freshmen in the class of 2023.

He is joined by backcourt players Reed Sheppard and DJ Wagner, small forward Justin Edwards and center Aaron Bradshaw.

Kentucky has the top-ranked recruiting class in 2023 according to 247Sports, ESPN, On3 and Rivals.

Sheppard recently had his high school season come to a close with North Laurel in the Sweet 16 state basketball tournament at Rupp Arena.

Bradshaw and Wagner both had their high school careers end prematurely at Camden (N.J.) after the school was removed from the state tournament following a fight that took place during a county championship game.

A club basketball team consisting of Camden players appeared set to compete in a 16-team single-elimination event in Atlanta at the end of March.

Edwards is still playing at Imhotep Institute in his native Philadelphia and has already led the school to a Public League title this season. Imhotep is still in the running for a Pennsylvania state championship in Class 5A.

Bradshaw, Edwards, Sheppard and Wagner are all McDonald’s All-American selections, with activities for the McDonald’s All-American game set to occur this week in Houston.

Dillingham was not eligible to be named a McDonald’s All-American.

This is part of a series of articles that will recap the high school seasons of incoming UK men’s basketball freshmen, top recruits currently being pursued by the Wildcats and other top men’s college basketball recruits from the state of Kentucky.

Year in review: Reed Sheppard returned to the Sweet 16. Now, he’ll be a Kentucky Wildcat.

Year in review: Travis Perry resets Kentucky high school boys’ basketball record book