Darius Acuff Jr. didn’t spend long in Fayetteville, but he made sure nobody who watched him play will forget it anytime soon.
On Tuesday night, the Sacramento Kings selected the Arkansas guard with the seventh overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. It capped a freshman season that’s unlike anything the program has ever seen.
Sidney Moncrief in 1979 is the highest-drafted Arkansas player at No. 5 by the Milwaukee Bucks to start his All-NBA career.
The pick makes Acuff the highest-drafted Razorback since Anthony Black went sixth overall to the Orlando Magic in 2023.
Black and Joe Kleine remain the top two Arkansas players selected in the lottery era, but Acuff now sits alongside them in that group of eight Hogs ever taken in the lottery since the system was introduced in 1985.
It’s also worth noting this is John Calipari’s first lottery pick since he arrived in Fayetteville in 2024 — and his 30th lottery pick overall as a college head coach.
That ties him with Mike Krzyzewski for the all-time record among college coaches. Calipari is also the only coach in history to send at least one player into the first or second round in 19 consecutive years.
Acuff’s one season rewrote the record book at Arkansas
The numbers Acuff put up this past season were hard to believe in real time and don’t get easier to process looking back.
He averaged 23.5 points and 6.4 assists per game, making him the only player in the country to average at least 20 points and six assists.
That scoring average ranks third in program history and made him the first SEC player to lead the conference in both categories since Pete Maravich.
He shot 48.4% from the field and 44% from three in 35 minutes per game while adding 3.1 rebounds.
Acuff swept the SEC’s individual awards, taking home Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, First Team All-Conference and All-Freshman team.
Nationally, he was a unanimous First Team All-American and a finalist for both the Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy.
The Bob Cousy Award, given annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the nation’s top point guard, also went to Acuff.
He’s the first freshman to ever win it in the award’s history dating back to 2004 and only the second Calipari-coached player to take it home, joining current Arkansas assistant Tyler Ulis, who won it in 2016.
His performance in a road game at Alabama gave people a sense of just how special this kid is. His 49-point outing in that contest is second in program history only to Rotnei Clarke’s 51-point game in 2009.
In that Alabama performance, Acuff became just the second Division I or NBA player in the past 30 years to score at least 45 points, grab five rebounds, dish five assists with only one turnover and play the entire game. The other player was Kobe Bryant.
Calipari’s quote captures who Acuff is as a competitor
What makes Calipari’s quote about that night stand out is the context around it. Acuff had been in a boot leading up to the game.
“He was in a boot for two days, and still did that,” Calipari said. “And I said, ‘do you think you might have to miss this game?’ He said, ‘are you nuts?’ He doesn’t care. Hurt, whatever it is.”
The individual statistics tell one part of the story. What Acuff did for Arkansas in the postseason tells another.
He helped end a 26-year drought when the Razorbacks won the 2026 SEC Tournament Championship in Nashville — the program’s first since 2000 by putting up 30 points and 11 assists in an 86-75 victory over Vanderbilt in the title game.
He earned Tournament MVP after averaging a record 30.3 points per game across those three games.
His 91 total points in the SEC Tournament were the second-most by any player in conference tournament history but the most by someone who only played three games.
The Hogs also reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season, and Acuff’s contributions carried them there.
His 60 combined points across the first two rounds — 24 against Hawaii and 36 against High Point — were the most by a freshman in NCAA Tournament history.
He’s also the only player ever to log 60 or more points, 10 or more assists and five or fewer turnovers across any two-game stretch in tournament history.
A Sacramento connection with some personal history
Acuff is the fourth Arkansas Razorback to be drafted by the Kings and the first since Corliss Williamson in 1995.
The others were Joe Kleine and the late Charles Balentine, both selected in 1985. He’s now the 48th Razorback taken in the NBA Draft overall and the 17th first-round pick in program history.
The Sacramento connection carries a bit of a backstory. Kings general manager Scott Perry coached Acuff’s father at Eastern Kentucky in the 1990s.
The franchise itself has finished above .500 just twice in the last decade, so Acuff joins a team with room to grow.
As of Tuesday night, Calipari’s all-time total of NBA Draft picks stands at 63, which ranks third among all college coaches. The 30 lottery picks are now his alone at the top of the record books.
