Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. earns Rick Barnes praise that puts him on par with Houston, Illinois stars

One of the sneaky-good teams during this college basketball season this year has been Arkansas, which continues to look like one of the best teams in college basketball this year. John Calipari and company proved that again on Saturday with a very impressive 86-75 win over Tennessee at home in Fayetteville.

The Razorbacks controlled the game for most of the day, and that was thanks to star guard Darius Acuff Jr. The standout freshman led all scorers with 29 points, a new career-high for him, on 9-for-16 shooting and 3-for-7 from beyond the arc.

After the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes was very impressed with Acuff, via ESPN Arkansas.

“He is playing as well as anyone we’ve played against all year,” Barnes said after the loss.

That is high praise coming from one of the best and most experienced coaches in all of college basketball. Barnes and Tennessee have played against a very difficult schedule so far this season, including games against Houston, Illinois and Kansas. For the longtime Volunteers coach to put Acuff up at the top of that list shows a lot about the type of performance the freshman put on.

Of course, for anyone that has watched Arkansas play all season, this performance comes as no surprise. Acuff is averaging 19.5 points per game to lead the team this season and now has seven games with at least 20 points this year. Hs has not had a single-digit scoring game yet this season.

Fellow freshman Meleek Thomas also had a great game against Tennessee, scoring 18 points off the bench and giving the Razorbacks the spark they needed throughout the game. While Calipari has a number of veterans who are key contributors for this Arkansas team, Acuff and Thomas are the stars of the show for one of the best teams in the SEC.

The Razorbacks will be on everyone’s radar after this win, and now the schedule lightens up and should allow them to get off to a good start in conference play. Calipari and company will take on a struggling Ole Miss team on Wednesday before traveling to an Auburn program that is dealing with a lot of turnover on Saturday.

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