Is Kentucky closing in on its next big basketball recruiting commitment?
READ MORE
UK basketball recruiting updates
Ben Roberts and Cameron Drummond of the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com are producing several stories and videos analyzing last weekend’s Nike EYBL basketball recruiting showcase in Louisville. Click below to access all of their coverage this week.
Expand All
Kentucky might be slipping for one of the top basketball recruits in the class of 2023.
The Cats might also be gaining for another such player.
A day after Louisville officially announced the hire of Milt Wagner — leading to even more speculation that the Cards are the team to beat for longtime UK target DJ Wagner — a prominent recruiting analyst logged a pick in favor of the Wildcats for a different high school guard.
247Sports’ Travis Branham put in a Crystal Ball prediction Wednesday — with a “high” level of confidence — favoring Kentucky in the recruitment of Robert Dillingham, a 6-foot-2 combo guard from North Carolina currently ranked as the No. 7 overall player in the 2023 class.
Transferring this past season to Donda Academy — the prep school team started by Kanye West — Dillingham averaged 20 points, seven assists and six rebounds per game and continued to show why he might be the best perimeter scorer in the entire 2023 class.
His junior year also featured some recruiting drama. In the fall, it looked like he was a lock to Kentucky. Then, he committed to North Carolina State, a pledge that lasted just three and a half months before he backed off that decision and was back in play for college recruiters.
UK’s coaches made it clear they still had him in a prominent spot on their 2023 board, and now the buzz is growing that the Wildcats might once again be the team to beat for Dillingham’s commitment.
“Obviously, since he reopened it up, Kentucky dove in head first and made him a top priority,” Branham told the Herald-Leader on Wednesday. “And as time has gone on, they’ve continued to be consistent with him in that regard. They’re always at his games. John Calipari has been at several of his games. So this is something that they’ve been making their way up the leader board, and over the past couple of weeks it seemed to be heating up.
“And now multiple sources are indicating that a decision is likely to be coming in the next month, and that decision is likely to be Kentucky.”
As it stands, UK has just one commitment for its 2023 recruiting class: North Laurel combo guard Reed Sheppard, the No. 22 overall player in the 247Sports composite rankings.
The Cats have been looking to add at least one more player with lead-guard skills to complement Sheppard, and for a long time it looked like Wagner — the No. 1 overall recruit in the class — would be the most likely option.
That has changed over the past couple of months.
This week’s announcement that Milt Wagner will be joining Louisville’s staff was long expected, but it’s also yet another sign of the Cardinals’ possible position of strength in that recruitment. Branham logged the first pro-Louisville pick on Wagner’s Crystal Ball page in April, and more predictions in favor of the Cards have followed. Even then, it was becoming clear that Wagner’s grandfather would be joining the Louisville staff in some capacity. Branham told the Herald-Leader this week that he’s sticking with that U of L prediction, though he also noted that the Cards are no lock and added that Kentucky is “still very much alive” in Wagner’s recruitment.
The recruiting analyst also said the two prospects are not mutually exclusive. Branham said the timing of his Crystal Ball prediction for Dillingham less than 24 hours after Milt Wagner was introduced at Louisville was purely coincidental.
“My Crystal Ball pick is not tethered to the DJ Wagner situation,” he said. “This is not saying that Kentucky is missing on DJ, so they’re getting Rob. They’re still in the mix with DJ, and they’ll still be in the mix with DJ. The two decisions are not related. Just because Rob goes there doesn’t mean DJ is not going there.”
Both Dillingham and Wagner are off to hot starts to the spring basketball schedule, and both players will be on the court this weekend in Louisville for the next stop on the Nike EYBL circuit.
Through eight games this spring in Nike league play, Dillingham is averaging 18.4 points and 3.5 assists per game, while shooting 34.1 percent from three-point range for Team CP3.
For a while now, he’s been considered one of the best offensive players in the country. With a possible UK commitment on the horizon, that outlook hasn’t changed.
“He is one of the most dynamic scorers in the entire country,” Branham said. “He is very, very shifty with the basketball. He just creates any shot out on the court. Knockdown shooter. Makes tough shots.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
