Eric Musselman offers thoughts on Kentucky freshman Rob Dillingham

After Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham missed the Wildcats’ first matchup with Arkansas, he made his presence known with some key plays down the stretch in Saturday’s rematch.

Probably not due to Dillingham, but the second installment of Kentucky-Arkansas in 2024 was quite a bit more exciting than the first. The ‘Cats and Hogs competed in a defensive showdown down in Fayetteville, as Kentucky mustered just 63 total points, their second-lowest total of the season, while putting the clamps on Arkansas themselves to win by six points.

In Lexington, though, the two teams nearly hit 120 total points just in the first half after they needed the whole game to get there last time — and then the finished the ballgame with a 111-102 final score, just a tad bit higher than the first meeting. Ultimately, though, thanks to a late string of plays by Dillingham, Kentucky was able to distance themselves from Arkansas in the final moments. He finished a handful of acrobatic layups and floated a couple of lobs to Justin Edwards and Zvonimir Ivisic on the most important offensive possessions.

After the game, Eric Musselman wasn’t too upset with how his guys guarded Dillingham, and noted that he’s just an impressive talent.

“Well, I mean, he’s an NBA draft pick. He’s fast, he makes really difficult shots,” said Muss, then laying out the stats showing that Dillingham didn’t have his best day.

“But you know, we held — he’s five of 13, 0 for 3 from the 3-point line. So I thought we did a good job taking away his 3-point shot. You know, he made five field goals. So I mean, coming into the game, you know, an NBA first round pick, if you can hold him to five field goals, we’d probably be fairly happy.”

The overall numbers from Dillingham weren’t incredible — and for most of the game, he was held in check. But when Dilly got loose, he really closed the game out with his run of several possessions in a row scoring or assisting a bucket.

Despite the loss and Rob Dillingham’s flurry at the end, Musselman was pleased with how the Razorbacks performed.

“Thought we played as hard as we’ve played all year. The effort, the focus, the belief. All of those things were as good as they’ve been,” he said. “It was a locker room that pregame thought they were going to win. Halftime thought they were going to win, and throughout the course of the huddles. Thought we showed great toughness. I thought we got on the floor for loose balls.”

A tough loss to swallow, but not for a lack of effort.