John Calipari Explains Decision on Not Playing Rob Dillingham More Against Gonzaga

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John Calipari barely played freshman guard Rob Dillingham in the second half of Kentucky’s loss to Gonzaga, including the final seconds when UK needed a basket to tie or win the game. Against Ole Miss Tuesday, Dillingham had 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting along with four assists and four rebounds in 19 minutes. He was a big factor in the second half even though he had three first-half turnovers that frustrated Calipari.

“I give him another chance. I tell him I believe in you but you’re not going to play playing the way you’re playing,” Calipari said when asked why he went back to Dillingham in the second half against Ole Miss.

“If he would have come out and had two more turnovers he would have sat. Because the turnovers were not like good turnovers. It was like giving them the ball for layups at the other end. Did that in Florida down there and the second half he played out of his mind.

“Like I told him last game. He was -13. I was watching the game and no, he’s not playing real well. But I left him out for a long period of time because the other group played well together. So now, there are five minutes to go and you keep a kid out for eight minutes. Is it fair to him to put him in, in the guts of that game. It’s just not fair.”

However, Calipari said after the Ole Miss game that if Dillingham had come to him in the Gonzaga game and told him he would be fine, the coach would have put him back in the game.

“I would not have said go ahead, just go in. I’m not doing that to that young person. He loses the game on a missed shot. No, I’m not doing it unless he wanted in. It’s like Reed (Sheppard) telling me stick with me when I’m throwing balls all over the place. I’ll be fine, I’ll settle down,” Calipari said.

“They are talking more. We are doing some things in practice that they suggested to me. Some of it is to hold them accountable. We’ve got to be held accountable defensively. So here are some ideas. We did them and we went with them.”

Sheppard, who had 13 points against Mississippi, said one of the “main suggestions” from the players was to pick up more full court to be the “aggressor” from the start of games.

“We were trying to get into them a bit more than letting them come down the court and have 30 seconds to do whatever play they wanted,” Sheppard said. “We wanted to pick up and make the game faster and how we need to play.”