John Calipari is arguably the best recruiter in the history of college basketball. As a result, Kentucky is regularly loaded with high-level talent and future NBA players. This year is no different. In February, we dove into what makes freshman guard Reed Sheppard special, going deep on why the undersized guard has the potential to be a great NBA player. Well, Sheppard commonly shares the backcourt with another guard that happens to be on the smaller side. His name is Rob Dillingham and he just might be the most electric player in college basketball.

Dillingham is averaging 15.0 points and 3.8 assists per game for the Wildcats heading into the postseason. Those numbers hardly jump off the page, but there are a lot of mouths to feed for Kentucky. And Dillingham is still able to showcase his game-changing ability, and he does it while shooting 48.2% from the floor and 44.5% from deep. Those percentages are quite good for a player that looks the part of a volume scorer.

Dillingham is what many would refer to as a “pure hooper.” He looks like he’s playing pickup with the way he makes magic happen with the basketball. Dillingham’s shiftiness and handle set the tone for everything. He can get defenders off balance whenever he wants, and that allows him to attack the rim relentlessly. And despite having a short wingspan, Dillingham is a pretty good finisher in traffic. He also has a nice floater game. But Dillingham’s real gift right now is his ability to shoot off the bounce. He’s a natural when shooting off the dribble, and his stepback jumper is something his team can always count on late in the shot clock.

Dillingham also has the ability to make every pass in the book. As of right now, he can sometimes be a little guilty of having tunnel vision as a scorer. But when he’s playing within the flow of the offense and focusing on making the right play, he’s dangerous as a playmaker. Dillingham is capable of hitting the roll man in pick-and-roll situations, as evidenced by him averaging a tremendous 1.028 points per possession as a ball handler in those plays, according to Synergy Sports. That puts him in the 90th percentile in all of college basketball. Dillingham is also good at whipping the ball out to shooters — even with one-handed passes to the corners. All of that will give NBA teams hope that he can play on the ball at the next level, which is probably necessary at his size. If Dillingham was three inches taller, he’d undoubtedly play the two.

Like his teammate Sheppard, Dillingham would probably benefit from not being the only ball handler on the floor. That would allow him to focus on what he does best, which is scoring the basketball. It’d also give him the opportunity to take more catch-and-shoot triples. His next team will want that, as he’s shooting a ridiculous 54.0% on spot-up threes this season. There’s just a lot to like about what the 19-year-old brings to the table on the offensive end. And an argument can be made that his skill set on that end of the floor gives him higher upside than most of the players in this class.

The question with Dillingham is whether or not he can be even mediocre on the defensive end. It’s extremely hard to be a small guard in today’s NBA. Opponents will hunt smaller guys endlessly, and Dillingham is already a player that can be a little too casual off the ball. To his credit, Dillingham mostly competes his tail off on that end of the floor. But his size sometimes renders that irrelevant. He’s seriously lacking in both length and strength. With that being the case, Dillingham will have to be an elite offensive player in order to live up to a high draft pick. The good news is that you can’t rule that out. He’s too talented and, to the surprise of many, has proven that he can be incredibly efficient while not losing sight of who he is.

Dillingham should have a place in the lottery secured right now. The 2024 NBA Draft class is pretty weak, and Dillingham has the floor of an instant-offense type off the bench. It almost feels like a certainty that he’ll be a great NBA sixth man, at the very least. But Dillingham can be more than that if he ends up with the right franchise. It’s not common for guards his size to overcome that disadvantage. But nothing about Dillingham is common. You can make full highlight mixes out of his single-game tape. If you’d like to see for yourself, try to watch some clips of his 35-point performance against Tennessee on February 3rd. The Volunteers are the third-best defensive team in college basketball as far as defensive efficiency goes and Dillingham made the group look silly.