1. Normally when an in-state recruit picks NC State, I am full of stories and details.
With Robert Dillingham, it’s a little bit different. I have a beginning, a little bit in the middle and now we are at the end of his recruitment, but surely not the end of covering his prep career, though it’s a little harder now that he’s at Donda Academy in Simi Valley, Calif.
The one-two punch of the Covid pandemic disrupting basketball and then me having Leukemia cut down on the stories. However, I long ago recognized Dillingham as a key cog in the class of 2023.
I’ll go back to the beginning. The buzz about Dillingham started when he shared the backcourt with fellow class of 2023 guard Aden Holloway on Team United. Maybe it was the 14s level, but possibly 15s. Holloway now attends La Porte (Ind.) La Lumiere.
Holloway attended the 2019 CP3 Rising Stars Camp, but Dillingham didn’t. An opportunity for an early look was missed, but it was at that camp that it became clear the class of 2023 was stacked in North Carolina, which we wrote about at the time.
Seeing Dillingham play for Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy became an early season priority, and that happened against Moravian Prep at Greensboro Day on Nov. 22, 2019. Guess who played for Moravian Prep? Josh Hall and Shakeel Moore, who signed with NC State.
Moravian Prep won 82-54 in a beat-down and Dillingham didn’t really show what he could do. What I do remember from that game, Combine coach Jeff McInnis, the former UNC and NBA point guard, chewed out Dillingham brutally at one point in the game. He didn’t let it affect him, and played with poise when he checked in afterward.
The next chance to see Dillingham on a big stage was at the 2019 John Wall Holiday Invitational at Raleigh Broughton High, and he delivered. They played Phoenix (Ariz.) Hillcrest Prep in the first game, falling 62-58, but Dillingham had 18 points in the loss. He followed up with 20 points against an overmatched Raleigh Leesville Road team, which didn’t have suspended point guard Carter Whitt, who is now at Wake Forest.
What happened in the Leesville Road game will always be etched in my memory. Dillingham started going one-on-one toward the end of the game. As the kids would say, he was “in his bag” or on “swagger alert.” In a game where it was a blowout and about four minutes left, the crowd at Broughton was literally on its feet to see a small freshman guard show of his crossover and pull-up jumper. I like to think that is where Dillingham went from prospect to must-see player. I did his first interview with the Rivals.com network that week.
Now the twists and turns since that point, that would be unpredictable, especially the NC State part.
I don’t think there was ever a point where people thought Dillingham had NC State as his leader over the last two years.
When Dillingham, who is from Hickory, N.C., went to Simi Valley (Calif.) Donda Academy, the doubts were loud. Why go that far away from home for high school if his heart was set on playing close to home for college, unless homesickness played a part.
However, when I started doing my research on the situation and came out with The Run Down on Nov. 1, some things crystalized about Dillingham.
The two biggest pieces were UNC leading for him and also considering Overtime. We’ll tackle the UNC part first. North Carolina offered him Dec. 25, 2020, incredibly early for the Tar Heels and then coach Roy Williams. Since that time, Williams has retired and Dillingham elected to leave the state. It became clear the two sides had grown apart and the Tar Heels under new coach Hubert Davis turned to Rivals five-star guard Simeon Wilcher of Roselle (N.J.) Catholic, who committed Oct. 15. Some wonder if his commitment is truly solid, but that is recruiting in 2021. NC State just played his older brother on Nebraska on Wednesday.
Then there was the other looming recruitment of another New Jersey guard. Dajuan Wagner Jr. is the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2023 out of Camden, N.J., and is considered a mortal lock for Kentucky, if he attends college. Dajuan Wagner Sr. played at Memphis when coach John Calipari was there. Calipari wanted Wagner Sr. so badly, he took his prep power forward teammate Arthur Barclay back in 2001, and had hired former Louisville star and NBA player Milt Wagner, his dad.
There was some consternation Wednesday that Dillingham had verbally committed to Kentucky during his visit the weekend of Oct. 22. Everything we have heard, it’s true, he did. Dillingham also quickly changed his mind due to playing with Wagner and then another more subtle tactic that UK applied. They did the “we’ll offer you if you come visit” plan, and that wasn’t 100 percent cool with Dillingham per some well-placed sources.
The other hurdle was the perception he’d grab the money with the Overtime league. The G-League seemed a bit of a stretch, but not Overtime. They were taking players just like Dillingham. As luck would have it, Overtime played at Combine Academy on Nov. 1-2, which was Dillingham’s old school. A first-hand look by The Wolfpack Central at the product gave a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve. Sources made it clear that weekend that Dillingham wasn’t interested, even though the money probably is quite alluring.
That was also the time when trusted sources said NC State was in the mix or possibly the leader. He had just officially visited NC State the weekend of Oct. 29-31. He took in the Louisville football game, but he did miss some basketball-related parts of the visit, which some were worried about.
Overall, the message was that Dillingham really relates well to coach Kevin Keatts. LSU was also a real factor, but he didn’t bond with coach Will Wade like he did Keatts. Over time, some other aspects will come out how NC State won him over, but the layout of the situation all started to point toward Raleigh.
Now, the second half of this is making sure everything goes well and he arrives for summer school during the summer of 2023.
With Robert Dillingham, it’s a little bit different. I have a beginning, a little bit in the middle and now we are at the end of his recruitment, but surely not the end of covering his prep career, though it’s a little harder now that he’s at Donda Academy in Simi Valley, Calif.
The one-two punch of the Covid pandemic disrupting basketball and then me having Leukemia cut down on the stories. However, I long ago recognized Dillingham as a key cog in the class of 2023.
I’ll go back to the beginning. The buzz about Dillingham started when he shared the backcourt with fellow class of 2023 guard Aden Holloway on Team United. Maybe it was the 14s level, but possibly 15s. Holloway now attends La Porte (Ind.) La Lumiere.
Holloway attended the 2019 CP3 Rising Stars Camp, but Dillingham didn’t. An opportunity for an early look was missed, but it was at that camp that it became clear the class of 2023 was stacked in North Carolina, which we wrote about at the time.
Seeing Dillingham play for Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy became an early season priority, and that happened against Moravian Prep at Greensboro Day on Nov. 22, 2019. Guess who played for Moravian Prep? Josh Hall and Shakeel Moore, who signed with NC State.
Moravian Prep won 82-54 in a beat-down and Dillingham didn’t really show what he could do. What I do remember from that game, Combine coach Jeff McInnis, the former UNC and NBA point guard, chewed out Dillingham brutally at one point in the game. He didn’t let it affect him, and played with poise when he checked in afterward.
The next chance to see Dillingham on a big stage was at the 2019 John Wall Holiday Invitational at Raleigh Broughton High, and he delivered. They played Phoenix (Ariz.) Hillcrest Prep in the first game, falling 62-58, but Dillingham had 18 points in the loss. He followed up with 20 points against an overmatched Raleigh Leesville Road team, which didn’t have suspended point guard Carter Whitt, who is now at Wake Forest.
What happened in the Leesville Road game will always be etched in my memory. Dillingham started going one-on-one toward the end of the game. As the kids would say, he was “in his bag” or on “swagger alert.” In a game where it was a blowout and about four minutes left, the crowd at Broughton was literally on its feet to see a small freshman guard show of his crossover and pull-up jumper. I like to think that is where Dillingham went from prospect to must-see player. I did his first interview with the Rivals.com network that week.
Now the twists and turns since that point, that would be unpredictable, especially the NC State part.
I don’t think there was ever a point where people thought Dillingham had NC State as his leader over the last two years.
When Dillingham, who is from Hickory, N.C., went to Simi Valley (Calif.) Donda Academy, the doubts were loud. Why go that far away from home for high school if his heart was set on playing close to home for college, unless homesickness played a part.
However, when I started doing my research on the situation and came out with The Run Down on Nov. 1, some things crystalized about Dillingham.
The two biggest pieces were UNC leading for him and also considering Overtime. We’ll tackle the UNC part first. North Carolina offered him Dec. 25, 2020, incredibly early for the Tar Heels and then coach Roy Williams. Since that time, Williams has retired and Dillingham elected to leave the state. It became clear the two sides had grown apart and the Tar Heels under new coach Hubert Davis turned to Rivals five-star guard Simeon Wilcher of Roselle (N.J.) Catholic, who committed Oct. 15. Some wonder if his commitment is truly solid, but that is recruiting in 2021. NC State just played his older brother on Nebraska on Wednesday.
Then there was the other looming recruitment of another New Jersey guard. Dajuan Wagner Jr. is the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2023 out of Camden, N.J., and is considered a mortal lock for Kentucky, if he attends college. Dajuan Wagner Sr. played at Memphis when coach John Calipari was there. Calipari wanted Wagner Sr. so badly, he took his prep power forward teammate Arthur Barclay back in 2001, and had hired former Louisville star and NBA player Milt Wagner, his dad.
There was some consternation Wednesday that Dillingham had verbally committed to Kentucky during his visit the weekend of Oct. 22. Everything we have heard, it’s true, he did. Dillingham also quickly changed his mind due to playing with Wagner and then another more subtle tactic that UK applied. They did the “we’ll offer you if you come visit” plan, and that wasn’t 100 percent cool with Dillingham per some well-placed sources.
The other hurdle was the perception he’d grab the money with the Overtime league. The G-League seemed a bit of a stretch, but not Overtime. They were taking players just like Dillingham. As luck would have it, Overtime played at Combine Academy on Nov. 1-2, which was Dillingham’s old school. A first-hand look by The Wolfpack Central at the product gave a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve. Sources made it clear that weekend that Dillingham wasn’t interested, even though the money probably is quite alluring.
That was also the time when trusted sources said NC State was in the mix or possibly the leader. He had just officially visited NC State the weekend of Oct. 29-31. He took in the Louisville football game, but he did miss some basketball-related parts of the visit, which some were worried about.
Overall, the message was that Dillingham really relates well to coach Kevin Keatts. LSU was also a real factor, but he didn’t bond with coach Will Wade like he did Keatts. Over time, some other aspects will come out how NC State won him over, but the layout of the situation all started to point toward Raleigh.
Now, the second half of this is making sure everything goes well and he arrives for summer school during the summer of 2023.
