Star UK basketball recruit signs with pro league. He’s still coming to Kentucky.
Five-star guard Robert Dillingham has signed a contract with the Overtime Elite professional basketball league, but he’s still planning to play for the Kentucky Wildcats next season.
Overtime Elite announced Thursday morning that Dillingham, who was previously at Donda Academy in California, would be joining the pro league for his senior season of high school. Overtime Elite (OTE) is a relatively new basketball organization that offers a prep school-type environment for high school players. Some of OTE’s players have salaried contracts, and others sign special deals that allow them to make money through name, image and likeness opportunities while keeping their NCAA eligibility intact.
Dillingham, who committed to Kentucky earlier this year, will go the latter route and keep his college eligibility, the Herald-Leader was told Wednesday morning.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join OTE,” Dillingham said in a statement. “The team and resources they offer are amazing and this is an incredible opportunity to continue to develop my game and take it to the next level, while competing against elite talent.”
The Kentucky recruit was left looking for a new place to play following the recent shutdown of Donda Academy, which was founded by Ye (the music artist formerly known as Kanye West), who has been at the center of controversy stemming from his recent antisemitic comments.
The Herald-Leader was also told Wednesday that Dillingham was looking at a possible transfer to OTE even before the latest controversy involving the Donda founder.
Naas Cunningham — a top-five recruit in the 2024 class — was the first prospect to join OTE on a path that would keep his college eligibility intact. Since his decision, several other high school players have followed.
Cunningham and his family visited the OTE facilities earlier this year — and worked closely with the league’s top officials to map out a college route — before making their decision to transfer.
“In trying to think about what’s going to set Naas forward — getting better, stronger, and what environment he should be in — that’s where it all started,” Cunningham’s father, Erik, told the Herald-Leader over the summer. “And the Overtime guys worked with all the apprehensions that I had, and made a plan out of it.
“So it allowed him to have more options. We looked at, ‘Where will he have the most options?’ And for him, a place where he can focus in on his craft, get stronger, and have professionals help him propel himself forward, and then at the same time still have his eligibility — it was kind of like, ‘Easy peasy.’”
Dillingham — a 6-foot-2 combo guard from North Carolina — is the No. 9 overall recruit in the 247Sports composite rankings for 2023, and he’s regarded as one of the best perimeter scorers in all of high school basketball. He committed to Kentucky in June.
UK’s class of 2023 features commitments from Dillingham, fellow five-star recruits Aaron Bradshaw and Justin Edwards, and four-star Kentucky guard Reed Sheppard. The Cats are also viewed as the leaders for five-star combo guard DJ Wagner.
Players in the 2023 class will be eligible to officially sign with their colleges during the early signing period, which begins Wednesday and runs through Nov. 16.
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 9:31 AM.
