The Arkansas basketball team picked up a SEC conference win over LSU on Saturday. Darius Acuff Jr. led the Razorbacks once again, scoring a career-high 31 points. Arkansas improved to 15-5 on the season, following the victory.
Arkansas head coach John Calipari was pleased with Acuff's performance, but challenged him to push even harder in the weeks ahead.
“He's a beast. (Acuff), I call him a beast. You're a Beast. A guy really skilled and wired and driven to get better and it means something to him,” Calipari said, per the Southwest Times Record. “I know how good you are. I know, but I want you to be the best player in the country.”
Arkansas is now 5-2 in the SEC, following the win. The Razorbacks are tied for second in the league and have won back-to-back games.
Darius Acuff is a leader for Arkansas basketball
Calipari's team has had some setbacks this season, including a bad non conference loss to Houston. The Arkansas team is starting to come together. Calipari wasn't too pleased though with how the squad started out against LSU.
“We weren’t very good in the first half,” Calipari said, per Whole Hog Sports. “The reason is they had more emotion, they played harder [and] they were more locked in than we were. I was stunned we were only down [37-33 at halftime].
“Throughout the league…a bunch of people got beat today. You know what? We weren’t one of them.”
Acuff has led the way for this club throughout the season. He leads Arkansas this season in scoring, with a scoring average of 20 points per game.
“(Acuff's) performance, I’m looking at it like, ‘Look, let’s just put it in his hands,’ and he was terrific,” Calipari said to the Southwest Times Record.
Acuff was humble following his epic performance against LSU.
“We all just made plays for each other so we could come out with the win,” Acuff said on SEC Network after the game, and reported by Whole Hog Sports.
Arkansas next plays at Oklahoma on Tuesday.
