Texas Basketball: 3 players ready to become stars under Chris Beard

Devin Askew, G

One of the earliest additions to the roster for Beard, after he was hired as the Longhorns head coach back on April 1 to replace the departed Smart, was the former Kentucky Wildcats freshman guard Devin Askew. This Texas native and former elite five-star recruit Askew is a nice place to start building out the backcourt for the future on the Forty Acres.

Texas did recruit Askew pretty hard when he was coming out of high school, as were the Texas Tech Red Raiders, but he wound up landing with big-time head coach John Calipari and Kentucky. Just as his game was starting to trend up for the Wildcats, though, Askew got to take his talents elsewhere. Texas is where a lot of players are getting new starts this year.

Although Askew didn’t have the best counting stats, shooting percentages, and/or advanced metrics last season, he still was trending up toward the end of his true freshman campaign. He averaged 6.5 points per game, 2.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.3 blocks. And Askew shot 34.5 percent from the field, 27.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 80.6 percent from the free-throw line.

That all amounted to a somewhat average 0.9 box plus/minus, .054 win shares per 40 minutes, and an 8.8 player efficiency rating. There’s still a long way to go that Askew has in a lot of phases of his game.

But the ability to spread the ball around more polished players that have more well-rounded skill sets than a lot of the younger teammates that Askew had around him at Kentucky last season should help move his game along. Askew will have more floor spacing, a more polished supporting cast, and one full year of an offseason to grow, to move his game forward heading into next season.