Don’t push the panic button on Kentucky guard Devin Askew, his mentor warns
By Kyle Tucker 4h ago 2
Darren Collison is uniquely qualified to analyze Kentucky’s biggest problem in this early season: the point guard. See, not only was Collison an All-America point guard who played on three Final Four teams at UCLA and then enjoyed a decade-long career in the NBA. He also trained the Wildcats’ starting point guard, freshman Devin Askew, before he arrived on campus this summer. Back then, Collison raved about what a special player UK was getting, as did NBA star Russell Westbrook, who sponsors Askew’s Nike grassroots team.
So where’s the disconnect between that hype and what we’ve witnessed? Askew is pushing the plunger on an offensive implosion, averaging 6.0 points, 2.0 assists and 3.3 turnovers as the team’s preseason top-10 ranking turned into a nightmarish 1-3 start. Critics and fans have already reached a near-unanimous conclusion: Askew, who has logged the third-most minutes on this rudderless team, must go to the bench. It is time, most outsiders agree, to put the ball in the steadier hands of Creighton graduate transfer Davion Mintz. But what does Collison think?
“It’s early,” he said. “Just because it’s Kentucky basketball, there’s a lot of scrutiny and panicking involved when the team is not doing well.
But those guys are young. They’re four games into college basketball and out of high school. So just give it some time. I’m not worried about Devin. This is not going to faze him one bit. If you know what kind of player and person he is, how hard he’ll work to get it right, you know he’ll figure it out. Him and Cal will turn this thing around, and then they’ll quiet this chatter. I can’t wait to hear the talk when he gets it going.”
The question for coach John Calipari, of course, is just how patient he can afford to be. The Cats, with their unprecedented 10 new players, already lost the opportunity to play two exhibition games and four more cupcake nonconference games that are usually helpful in working out the kinks. They’re already in a hole, with games against Notre Dame, UCLA and Louisville still to come before conference play. Factoring in inevitable COVID-19 cancellations, it’s not unreasonable to figure Kentucky might only have about 20 regular-season games left, if that.
None of that is fair to Askew, who turned 18 in late July and would still be in high school had he not reclassified, certainly aware of Calipari’s pressing need for a point guard. But these are the facts: Of the Wildcats’ top six players, Askew has the worst offensive rating (78.6) and highest turnover percentage (41.3) — by a lot. Among the 83 SEC players who’ve been on the court long enough to qualify, Askew ranks 82nd in turnover percentage and 76th in offensive rating, per KenPom.com.
And yet, “I just think it’s premature to be critiquing anybody’s game on that team,” Collison said. “It’s not as easy as everybody thinks it’s going to be, walking into a big-time school with that kind of pressure on you. It takes time to adjust to the pace of the game, to the first-time scrutiny. You’re used to being
the guy and only hearing nice things about yourself. But now it’s a whole new level and you have to adjust. Fans don’t want to hear it, but that takes a minute.”
Collison, who had the luxury of sitting behind Jordan Farmar as a freshman on UCLA’s 2006 NCAA runner-up squad, made just 5 of 14 shots in his first four college games. He was barely above water in assist-to-turnover ratio. It’s not exactly uncommon for young guys at that position. Marquis Teague had 11 assists and 18 turnovers in his first four games at Kentucky, then 35 assists and nine turnovers in the next six, and then he was off and running. That shaky freshman point guard turned into a reliable floor general for the 2012 national championship team.
“He held the ball too long,” Calipari said of Teague early on. “He picked up his dribble. He turned it over at a high rate. What does that sound like?”
Sounds exactly like Askew, who has eight assists and 13 turnovers. To call him underwhelming would be putting it mildly for the consensus top-30 recruit who some considered the No. 1 point guard prospect in 2021 before he moved up a class. But that’s kind of the thing about Askew: He grows on you.
“First time I saw Devin, I thought he was OK,” said Victor Martin, director of the Westbrook-sponsored Team Why Not. “But the more you watch him, it goes: Oh, he’s pretty good. Hey, he’s good. Man, he’s really good. Wow, he’s
really good. He shows you something different he can do every time he plays — and he just steadily keeps growing. You don’t even know what his ceiling is going to be, because he never stops improving.”
One thing that appealed to Askew was how hard Calipari coached the point guards. (Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
Kentucky is certainly banking on that. Its fortunes seem to hinge on figuring out how to run a functional, efficient offense without giving the ball away. In consecutive losses to Richmond, Kansas and Georgia Tech, the Wildcats have surrendered 73 points off 58 turnovers. Askew has been at the heart of that problem, too often crossing half-court and suddenly picking up his dribble with no apparent plan for what to do next. To the casual observer, he looks uncomfortable at best, overwhelmed at worst.
“I’m not sure uncomfortable is the word,” Collison said. “He’s just getting acclimated to how college basketball needs to be played. He doesn’t look uncomfortable at all to me. He’s played some great defense, and the offense is just going to take some time. Uncomfortable to me would be somebody who has played 20 or 30 games and they just really haven’t shown a knack for it. Devin is a much better player than I was my freshman year and he’s dealing with a scrutiny that a lot of people will never understand. He’s learning the pace and the physicality, the play calls, the sets, what works and what doesn’t, what moves he can get away with at the college level. You’re going to see turnovers because he hasn’t figured out yet that some moves that worked in high school aren’t going to work in college. You need time to work that out.”
Collison and Askew have been in steady communication in these first couple weeks of the season, but Collison hasn’t offered much in the way of advice. He trusts the youngster to figure it out with his Hall of Fame coach. He also hasn’t felt the need to play counselor, because Askew’s attitude has remained positive even as social media is abuzz about the need to bench him.
“He’s not complaining one bit,” Collison said. “He understands he needs to play better to help the team win, but he isn’t feeling sorry for himself or blaming anybody. You won’t hear that from Devin, and that’s the mark of a good player.”
Remember, Askew signed up for this. For the hard road, bumps and all. Last fall, he told
The Athletic what really sold him on Kentucky was watching a practice in which Ashton Hagans, Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley battled each other while getting crushed by commentary from Calipari on the sideline.
“Cal was so much harder on the point guards, because that has to be your leader,” Askew said at the time. “When I saw that, it was like, This is where I need to be. I’m going to get pushed here. I need that. I want to be pushed. I need someone telling me what I’m doing wrong and never letting me settle. That’s what I love about it here.”
Askew hasn’t spoken to reporters since things have gone sideways, so it’s impossible to know how much he’s loving it now, but Collison said his former protégé has not blinked. Throughout the summer they trained together in California for several days a week, several hours a day. Collison was certain he was sending the Wildcats a future star, and he remains confident of that.
“You have to have a certain build to be great,” Collison said, “and what I’m trying to tell you is Devin has that build. He
will figure it out. The impact he’s going to have on that team is going to be tremendous. What I loved about him from the beginning was his work ethic and his toughness, and that toughness is what still gives me high hopes he’ll have a successful career at Kentucky. Once it starts to click, I don’t think we’ll ever have this conversation again.”
(Top photo: Jordan Prather / USA Today)
*apologies for the copy/paste **** catsfanbgky formatting.