Darius Acuff Jr. was taken with the seventh overall pick of the 2026 NBA Draft Tuesday night by the Sacramento Kings. Coming off a freshman all-America season, the point guard from Detroit is the 48th Razorback taken in the NBA Draft and the 17th first-rounder.
Acuff is the 63rd player coached by John Calipari, the 44th first-rounder and 30th NBA Lottery selection. He is coming off what is arguably the best season in SEC history, in which he helped lead the Hogs to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in six seasons.
Per the University of Arkansas, his highlights as a Hog include:
- being a unanimous first-team All-America.
- winning the Bob Cousy Award.
- being a finalist for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy for National Player of the Year.
- earning SEC Player of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year and SEC Tournament MVP.
- setting an SEC record with 8 weekly honors, including a record 7 Freshman of the Week honors and 1 SEC Player of the Week honor.
- setting Arkansas single-season records for most points (845) and most assists (232). His 845 points rank 9th on the SEC single-season list, and his 232 assists rank 9th (tied) on the SEC single-season list, making him the only player to be on the SEC single-season top lists for points and assists.
- joining Pete Maravich as the only players in SEC history to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season.
- averaging 23.47 points/gm to rank 3rd in the NCAA and 6.44 assists/gm to rank 14th in the NCAA.
- being the only player in the NCAA to average 20 pts & 6 assists, and was just 1 of 4 players in the NCAA to shoot at least 48 percent from the field (18.4 percent) and 44 percent from 3PT (44 percent).
- closing the season as the hottest player in college basketball, earning the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Month in February and March. Acuff played in 14 games over the two-month span, averaging 28.4 points and 6.8 assists while shooting 48.3 percent from 3-point range. He scored at least 20 points in 13 of the 14 games (scoring 17 in the other), including five 30-point games and his 49-point game at Alabama.
Former Razorbacks Maleek Thomas, who turned in his own special freshman campaign, and Trevon Brazille were expecting to hear their names called on Wednesday.
Photo Credit: Arkansas Razorbacks
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