I agree that some posters are overboard with their distaste for Cal. I also agree that some posters don't think Cal has ever done anything wrong while at UK whether it's in-game coaching, personnel decisions, player rotations, etc. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
I respect that Askew seemed to try/work very hard this past year. He seems like a good kid and I hope he goes on to do well (I won't go so far as 'once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat', though). Cal counted on him to grow up quickly this past year and it just didn't happen. Part of that is on Cal - he expected too much too soon from Askew. Perhaps because he had no other options, he continued to play Askew significant minutes until it became painfully obvious that he just wasn't up to the task (yet, perhaps). I'm willing to cut Cal some slack with Askew's handling except I thought he stayed with him too long rather than finding another option.
If DA truly feels like his PT will be cut this upcoming year then I don't blame him for moving on. Again, good luck to him. But, Cal has to take some responsibility and heat for having to rely on DA as much as he did this past year. Any reasonable person can see that he did a piss-poor job in building this team and his reliance on DA was only one of the shortcomings due to poor design of the roster that was completely obvious after only a few games. Once again, we had a dearth of backcourt quickness, a lack of 3-point shooting, poor basketball IQ, too many players who were similarly sized, athletically gifted and athletically lacking. That's on Call 100%. If his first choice (or first two choices) for OAD PG didn't come on board, he should've had a 3rd and 4th choice. It felt all along that Cal/UK 'settled' on Askew, regardless of what his HS ranking was. Did Cal accurately evaluate DA and put him in a position to succeed? I don't see how any Cal apologist could come to that conclusion.
With Mintz' decision still up in the air and several transfers committed elsewhere, what is Cal's strategy for not repeating the same roster design mistakes he obviously made this year? If Mintz decides to leave and one of the remaining top targets don't come on board, are we in a similar situation as this year's team? It just seems like the most recent years, the roster has felt like it's a haphazard, last-minute concoction rather than the culmination of a very structured plan. And, for the money Cal is making, there is no excuse for UKBB to ever seem haphazard.
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