It\u2019s fair to say that, no matter what stage you play on, high school basketball isn\u2019t nearly as demanding as it is at the college level. <\/p>\n
Especially at a place like Kentucky, where everyone on the roster was at one point the best player on their high school squads. Not everyone can take 15 shots per game, which can be a difficult transition for a five-star prospect who was used to taking even more than that just one year before. That\u2019s part of what makes the college game so much more demanding \u2014 it requires real sacrifice, but with even more hard work baked in through tougher practices and grinding behind the scenes. <\/p>\n
For some (this writer included), that\u2019s long been the worry regarding incoming freshman guard Robert Dillingham<\/a><\/strong>. How will he adjust to playing at Kentucky? <\/p>\n There wasn\u2019t a player more electric or \u201cshifty\u201d in all of high school basketball than Rob, particularly when he took his talents to Overtime Elite for his senior season. He\u2019s a pure scorer in every sense of the word, and his highlight mixtapes rival some of the best in the YouTube era. Dillingham took 14.5 shots per game for the Cold Hearts last season. The most any Kentucky player took in 2022-23 was 11.9 per game, courtesy of the sharpshooting Antonio Reeves<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n The biggest cloud surrounding Dillingham\u2019s transition from OTE to UK has always been his ability (or inability) to play more team-oriented basketball. That\u2019s not to say he\u2019s not a team-first player or doesn\u2019t know how to make plays though \u2014 he did average 4.9 assists per game at Overtime last season. But it has raised the question of how he\u2019ll be able to deal with not taking nearly as many shots when that\u2019s what his reputation has been built on.<\/p>\n Although he\u2019s only been on campus for a little over a month now, Dillingham, by his own account, is tackling that challenge head-on with a humble approach. <\/p>\n \u201cI would say just the shot-taking, the dribbling, more of like a proper game,\u201d Dillingham told reporters on Friday about what the biggest adjustment has been so far in practice. \u201cKnowing that we got a lot of players so you can\u2019t disrespect other players by taking a lot of shots<\/strong>, because a lot of players can shoot the ball. It\u2019s really just taking the right shots and playing defense and learning each other and all respecting each other.\u201d<\/p>\n