Over the weekend, the Arkansas basketball program danced into the Sweet 16 with a narrow win over High Point in the Round of 32. The standout of this game, and the entire season for the Razorbacks thus far, was Darius Acuff Jr., who scored 36 points in the victory.
Recently, Arkansas head coach John Calipari stopped by ESPN's The Pat McAfee Show to sing Acuff's praises amid his dominant start to tournament play.
“Darius Acuff is a gym rat and he loves the game. Nothing else matters to him… he's played outstanding… he's learning how to lead, how to create for his teammates, he's understanding that he can defend,” said Calipari, per Pat McAfee on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, Acuff Jr. has shown great leadership abilities throughout this season for Arkansas, guiding the Razorbacks to the number four seed in their section of the NCAA tournament bracket, and dominating the competition in the first two games.
As Calipari referenced, one of the major knocks on Acuff up to this point has been his perceived lack of defensive ability, which has caused some to wonder how far he might fall in the upcoming NBA Draft. However, Calipari himself doesn't seem to think that this is a major problem moving forward, and Acuff certainly has all of the tools and intangibles needed to fit the archetype of the modern scoring NBA point guard. Countless guards that have been coached by Calipari have gone on to attain great success in the NBA.
In any case, Arkansas will have its toughest test yet when they next take the floor on Thursday evening against top-seeded Arizona in the Sweet 16. Tipoff for that game is set for 9:45 pm ET.
