Cal lands commitment from Texas transfer guard Devin Askew
Cal has added an intriguing piece to its roster after Texas point guard Devin Askew announced his decision Friday to return home and transfer to play for the Bears. Askew, who began his career at Kentucky, has his roots in California as he was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Sacramento.
Askew was a star at Mater Dei High School in Southern California where he earned offers from many of the top programs in the country. He eventually decided to make the move to the SEC to play for John Calipari and the Wildcats.
The 6-foot-3 guard, who averaged 16.7 points and 6.3 assists in his final high school season, was considered one of the top prospects in the country as a junior before ultimately deciding to reclassify and leave Mater Dei a year early to begin his collegiate career.
However, he struggled to live up to his lofty ranking as a freshman at Kentucky. Askew made 20 starts and played in 25 games with the Wildcats and ultimately finished the season second in assists with 2.9 per game, but he averaged just 6.5 points and 2.6 rebounds in his first season.
Cal will be Askew’s third school in three seasons meaning he will need to receive a waiver from the NCAA to be allowed to play immediately with the Bears, otherwise he will have to sit out the upcoming season.
That is because he has already taken advantage of the NCAA’s one-time transfer rule when he made the move to Texas after his freshman season. Askew played in 34 games as a sophomore but made only three starts with the Longhorns and averaged just 14.8 minutes.
He averaged 2.1 points, 1.3 assists and 0.3 rebounds last season.
Should he be eligible to play this season, Askew will be in position to rejuvenate his career as a key player for the Bears. Cal will need a spark after seeing the team’s three top scorers move on from the program after the season.
The Bears, most importantly, will be looking to replace the production lost by the early departure of star big man Andre Kelly (13.4 ppg) after his recent decision to leave Cal for UC Santa Barbara.
The program has a two-man incoming recruiting class that features three-star forward prospects Grant Newell and ND Okafor that will help bring production to the front court.
However, adding a guard like Askew to the mix should help add some perimeter scoring and playmaking to the mix for the Bears, assuming he return to the level of play that he showed in high school.
Cal is headed into its fourth season under head coach Mark Fox and has yet to come away with a winning season during that time. Fox is 35-58 during his three years in Berkeley. The Bears finished the 2021-22 season with a 12-20 record overall and won just five Pac-12 games.
Upon reclassifying, Rivals rated Askew as the 33rd-best prospect in the 2020 class and the eighth-best point guard in the group. Cal offered him as a high school prospect plus he held offers from Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Kansas, Villanova, Ohio State, Louisville and Texas Tech, among many others, before picking Kentucky.
Askew will have three years of eligibility available upon joining the Bears.