Askew surprising coaches

[Cowtown Cat]

No, I agree. He just overall wasn't a good enough player his freshman year to be counted on the way we were counting on him. He wasn't set up for success because he wasn't ready for it. I never expected him to be, but he was worse than I expected. He could be a really good player for us by his junior year. He wasn't set up for success and the team was never set up for success. We just overhype these guys so damn much in the offseason and it's pretty outrageous. You read this stuff and the stuff we had people saying about Boston and Clarke coming into the season, it's pure Looney Toons.

I’ll take my lumps on Boston and Clarke. I still think Clarke would’ve been damn good for us eventually, had he not been injured or opted out or whatever. Boston was just horrible. I really didn’t expect him to be that bad. I thought he would be the secondary go to behind Clarke. Always thought Clarke was the guy. We will never know.

 

[SmedMoley]

Looking back, this was really embarrassing for the staff and just shows how bad we need a staff shake up.

It really does put a spotlight on things.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

No, I agree. He just overall wasn't a good enough player his freshman year to be counted on the way we were counting on him. He wasn't set up for success because he wasn't ready for it. I never expected him to be, but he was worse than I expected. He could be a really good player for us by his junior year. He wasn't set up for success and the team was never set up for success. We just overhype these guys so damn much in the offseason and it's pretty outrageous. You read this stuff and the stuff we had people saying about Boston and Clarke coming into the season, it's pure Looney Toons.

Yeah I won't disagree. I remember when we got Keldon, people (and myself a bit) thought, "This was the wing we've always been missing on!" and he kinda underwhelmed, at least for part of the season. He certainly wasnt who the overly-optimistic posters thought he would be. And I remember keeping that in mind when we got BJ and Clarke, and people started again with the "ok, NOW we got our elite wings". BJ was undersized, and we had no idea how he'd play and if he had the mental strength to make the college game work as a freshman.

 

[STL_Cat]

Yeah I won't disagree. I remember when we got Keldon, people (and myself a bit) thought, "This was the wing we've always been missing on!" and he kinda underwhelmed, at least for part of the season. He certainly wasnt who the overly-optimistic posters thought he would be. And I remember keeping that in mind when we got BJ and Clarke, and people started again with the "ok, NOW we got our elite wings". BJ was undersized, and we had no idea how he'd play and if he had the mental strength to make the college game work as a freshman.

Exactly. And then when Keldon left, what did we hear? "We don't need him back anyway, we have somebody better coming in in THE DRAGON, Khalil Whitney!!!"

Yikes.

 

[revcort]

Wow! Let's bring up a thread from August 2020 to slam on a kid! Yay! I swear sometimes you guys are heartless. Askew wasn't ready to jump in and lead this team as a 17-year old kid. He is not a prototypical Calipari point guard for sure. However, I did see this guy working hard and giving effort. I think we will see a marked improvement from year one to year two for this guy. He has the head and the heart to be a very good guard. He may end up being a 3 or 4-year player. That's what we say we want, right?

 

[RunninRichie]

Wow! Let's bring up a thread from August 2020 to slam on a kid! Yay! I swear sometimes you guys are heartless. Askew wasn't ready to jump in and lead this team as a 17-year old kid. He is not a prototypical Calipari point guard for sure. However, I did see this guy working hard and giving effort. I think we will see a marked improvement from year one to year two for this guy. He has the head and the heart to be a very good guard. He may end up being a 3 or 4-year player. That's what we say we want, right?

i was dunking on the staff not askew.

 

[STL_Cat]

Wow! Let's bring up a thread from August 2020 to slam on a kid! Yay! I swear sometimes you guys are heartless. Askew wasn't ready to jump in and lead this team as a 17-year old kid. He is not a prototypical Calipari point guard for sure. However, I did see this guy working hard and giving effort. I think we will see a marked improvement from year one to year two for this guy. He has the head and the heart to be a very good guard. He may end up being a 3 or 4-year player. That's what we say we want, right?

I think you need to take your sensitive pants off. This is much more about a lesson being learned in overhyping these guys before we ever see them put on a UK jersey than it is about slamming Askew. Literally nothing in this thread is heartless. Maybe you should toughen up.

 

[revcort]

Exactly. And then when Keldon left, what did we hear? "We don't need him back anyway, we have somebody better coming in in THE DRAGON, Khalil Whitney!!!"

Yikes.

Oh boy! Keldon struggled much of his freshman season but came on at the end. If he had come back another year, we would have seen his true potential. And as for Whitney, I can't remember being so disappointed in a player. It wasn't so much that he wasn't as good as I expected, it was that he quit on his team.

 

[revcort]

i was dunking on the staff not askew.

Collateral damage, eh?

 

[RunninRichie]

Collateral damage, eh?

after dunking on joel justus and putting my nuts on his chin, I crossed up askew.

 

[revcort]

after dunking on joel justus and putting my nuts on his chin, I crossed up askew.

Can I see your mix tape? I hear Cal is looking for guys with flying nuts.

 

[RunninRichie]

Can I see your mix tape? I hear Cal is looking for guys with flying nuts.

sorry, i renounced my eligibility so..........

 

[TankedCat]

maybe the bigger picture here is its time to recognize that we've gone off the rails to the point that we believe that a kid that should be experiencing his Senior year in high will be ready to lead the Kentucky program in November. There will be few exceptions that will ever be ready like one kid out of maybe 10 that come here as the PG.

Until Cal learns that, we're still going to experience this with varying degrees of failure. His continued investment in the belief that freshmen in game experience over time will result in our success is a roll of the dice this program can no longer afford.


Evansville level losses will still continue. We will not be the all time wins leader. We will struggle to build a resume that will result in seeds that increase our chances of a winning a national title.

and fans will continue to abandon the program they love at an alarming rate.

 

[TankedCat]

maybe the best thing for Cal at this point is being analytics driven in his coaching decisions. I think his perspective and instincts are too biased in his desire to see a hand selected kid succeed at the expense of the program.

I don't know, this year has really just removed alot of credibility that Cal had in "trusting the process"

 

[*Fox2Monk*]

I’ll take my lumps on Boston and Clarke. I still think Clarke would’ve been damn good for us eventually, had he not been injured or opted out or whatever. Boston was just horrible. I really didn’t expect him to be that bad. I thought he would be the secondary go to behind Clarke. Always thought Clarke was the guy. We will never know.

never in a million years would I have expected both of them to be as bad as they were. I guess maybe Clarke could have been better but he honestly didn’t do to much when he was out there, granted it was only the first 5 games or so.

 

[seccats04]

MDwildcat is a better talent evaluator than Joel Justus

Beat me to it.

 

[wkycatfan7]

Desire and work count for a lot.

 

[ORCAT]

Askew will be fine, he was just not at the level where he could come in as a freshman & be a star. The kid has a good attitude, works hard, & is determined to get better & he will.

I remember during Quickley's freshman season many were wondering what the heck Cal was thinking when he recruited Quickley. Folks forget!

Askew & Quickley are not the same type player so I'm not saying Askew will be Quickley next year but I am saying you will see a better Askew next year.

I was very upset, at times, with Askew's play. I agree with you that he played hard but was very inconsistent. I realize he should still have been in high school last year and that may account for much of his problems this year. I like your comparison to someone like Quickley who didn't become a true star til his second season. Different position, different player but if we see some significant improvement, through hard off season dedication, Askew could be much improved. Not sure we will ever Cal him an elite PG but he could become a very good college player for us. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some just drag up old threads on here to dig on players, coaches, etc. Guess it makes them feel superior with their great hindsight takes. Dragging up old threads gets tiring as it's just for an agenda.

 

[Shlomo]

Desire and work count for a lot.

Yep. Askew plays hard. He will never be lightening quick but he doesn't necessarily have to be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn 't really quick but he was very good at changing speeds and his footwork was excellent.

 

[gracetoyou]

But at least with Quickley you could see the athleticism and shooting ability to become a really good player with more experience. Askew doesn't bring much to the table. He's doesn't even have a tight handle and is very loose with the ball. He's a square peg in Cal's so-called round hole offense where you have to be able to beat your man off the dribble to be successful. I just don't see where he fits in.

Yea...you can see it easily now...lol. But like most fans you're suffering from amnesia & forget how disappointed & critical fans were of him his freshman year.

 

[carolinacat]

But at least with Quickley you could see the athleticism and shooting ability to become a really good player with more experience. Askew doesn't bring much to the table. He's doesn't even have a tight handle and is very loose with the ball. He's a square peg in Cal's so-called round hole offense where you have to be able to beat your man off the dribble to be successful. I just don't see where he fits in.

100%.

 

[jameslee32]

Looking back, this was really embarrassing for the staff and just shows how bad we need a staff shake up.

This is embarrassing for someone alright.

 

[Burly]

All he needs to be is Travis Ford - shoot over 40% from 3 ....80% from the line and be hard nosed
He has to be a willing shooter
He needs to find a quicker release - I think he can do that

 

[Madcat62_rivals113839]

I was very upset, at times, with Askew's play. I agree with you that he played hard but was very inconsistent. I realize he should still have been in high school last year and that may account for much of his problems this year. I like your comparison to someone like Quickley who didn't become a true star til his second season. Different position, different player but if we see some significant improvement, through hard off season dedication, Askew could be much improved. Not sure we will ever Cal him an elite PG but he could become a very good college player for us. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some just drag up old threads on here to dig on players, coaches, etc. Guess it makes them feel superior with their great hindsight takes. Dragging up old threads gets tiring as it's just for an agenda.

he should have been a ten to fifteen minutes a game reserve but due to cal's lack of roster building
he was thrown to the wolves.
in short this is on cal not him.

 

[turkeywildturkey]

I have picked up that Askew has a bit of alpha dog grrrrrr, always a good thing. If you got decent skills and a determined peddle to the floor motor, that a good thing.

I like this kid. He has some fire in his belly.

 

[Doc4UK!]

This is embarrassing for someone alright.

For sure an indictment of this coaching staff

 

[Seth_C]

If he got better @ kentucky...imagine him in HS....

Indeed. If he was worse in high school why did we even recruit him?

 

[RunninRichie]

Indeed. If he was worse in high school why did we even recruit him?

i was joking lol

 

[Captain_Kentucky]

i was dunking on the staff not askew.

The staffs ability to evaluate talent and coach has to be really questioned

 

[JonathanW_rivals]

Well, none of us know. But ask yourself this. Who, among Cal's PGs was obviously more physically gifted? Wall and Fox, and who else (before we saw them in action.) Who was without a doubt a better floor manager? Who was certain to be a better shot? Knight? Who else?

I think next year he can certainly contribute, and by his junior year could possibly be pretty good. But not a Wall, Fox, Ulis, Knight, or SGA. But it’s not unbelievable he could by JR year be better than Andrew H, Harrell, Teague, or Hagans. So best case, right in the middle.

 

[Blueaz]

Yep. Askew plays hard. He will never be lightening quick but he doesn't necessarily have to be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn 't really quick but he was very good at changing speeds and his footwork was excellent.

dude has over 25 GAME.... it's amazing that players can get better