Acuff gets chance to join Arkansas royalty in final non-con game against James Madison

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Awards groups from around the country can't seem to keep freshman guard Darius Acuff's name out of their mouths.

Despite playing in a league that has six of the Top 25 freshmen in the country according to recruiting services evaluating the 2025 class, Acuff has accounted for his third SEC Men's Basketball Freshman of the Week award in as many weeks.

He nearly averaged a high level double-double for the week. The Hogs' guard averaged 25 points and 8.5 assists to go with four rebounds and a pair of steals.

That's a big haul considering the Razorbacks' game against Queens was followed up with a high profile game against No. 8 Houston in New Jersey in a prime national television spot. Against the Cougars he put up 27 points to go with seven assists and five rebounds as he did all he could to avoid the Razorbacks taking the 94-85 loss.

For the week, Acuff racked up 17 assists, while only giving up four turnovers and knocking down 5-of-9 shots at a 55.5% clip from 3-point range. He also proved he can draw fouls and make teams pay as he shot 11-of-15 from the line.

It's the kind of play Arkansas head coach John Calipari hinted was coming while talking about how Acuff was meshing with the team in the off-season.

"He can find everybody," John Calipari said on John Rothstein's show over the summer. "Like he's throwing skip passes. He's coming down and throwing lobs to the big guys. They're loving playing with him.

"Now, what I like because of when I had whether [Derrick] Rose or De'Aaron Fox, and don't get me started, because there's I can go one after the other. They could go get a basket. Last year, at times, we couldn't just go. We didn't have enough wiggle. We couldn't go just get one, and then by getting one or two, you end the game. The game's over. Forget about the run. We couldn't do that. He can go get a bucket."

Against Queens, a team that forces their opponents to score in large amounts or easily fall to their non-stop offensive onslaught, Acuff scored a then career-high 23 points. He then tied a career-high with 10 assists, accounting for his second double-double of the season.

More importantly, he managed to play over 31 minutes without giving up a single turnover. As a cherry on top, Acuff knocked down 4-of-6 from 3-point range and added a career-high three steals in the 108-80 win.

While it would stand to reason that a personal best would come against a team like Queens, a team from a smaller conference that typically has smaller players with less defensive skills as a result of the difference in NIL, Acuff doesn't align with reason.

Just a few days later, against one of the best defensive teams in the nation, Acuff put up a second career high with 27 points. His eight points from the charity stripe were also a career high as was his 11 attempts.

Also, part of the reason Acuff keeps winning awards is his consistency. The seven assists he dished out against Houston meant he lockd down a sixth straight game with at least five assists.

Over the past six games he has averaged eight assists per game, making him a nightmare for defenses considering how many points he puts on the board to go with it. It's impossible to know whether to hold strong in a defensive stance to alter the shot or to cheat a little into the passing lane to cut off the assist.

That gives Arkansas a strong complement to veteran guard DJ Wagner heading into SEC play. However, the Razorbacks get one more shot at working out any inconsistencies in his game against James Madison before things get real week after week with SEC play beginning at Bud Walton against Tennessee.

It also provides Acuff a lower stress environment to join former Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe in having the best start to his college career as a Razorback. So far, he has scored in double figures in every single game he has played this season.

If Acuff manages to hit double figures against the Dukes next Monday, he will pull even with Joe who scored in double digits in his first 13 games as a Hog.

Fans will get the chance to see if he can achieve this monumental stat line on SEC+. The broadcast from Bud Walton will tip at 7 p.m. on Dec. 29.

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