What Arkansas basketball’s Darius Acuff Jr. brings to Sacramento Kings in NBA Draft
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John Calipari can officially begin a new streak of years with first-round draft picks.
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Darius Acuff Jr. is headed to the Sacramento Kings. The Arkansas basketball standout was selected with the No. 6 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Last year, Calipari and the Razorbacks didn't have a player chosen with the first 30 picks. It ended a 17-year run with at least one first-round draft pick, but the Hall of Fame coach's drought didn't last long.
Here's a look at Acuff's time at Arkansas, and what Sacramento fans can expect from the Detroit native.
Darius Acuff Jr. with Arkansas basketball
Acuff was a five-star recruit coming out of IMG Academy, but he exceeded all expectations for his one-and-done college career.
He became just the third player to earn SEC Player of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year honors in the same season, joining Anthony Davis (2012) and Brandon Miller (2023). He also joined Pete Maravich as the only players in SEC history to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season. Acuff averaged 23.5 points and 6.4 assists while shooting 48.4% overall and 44% from 3.
Wins against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament Final and High Point in the NCAA's second round showed he had a clutch gene that few players could match.
Few players in the country shouldered the type of offensive burden Calipari entrusted in Acuff. He was the primary scorer and distributer for Arkansas, and he played heavy minutes while nursing a nagging ankle injury throughout the second half of the SEC season.
What Darius Acuff Jr. brings to the Sacramento Kings
There might not have been a better offensive player available in the NBA Draft.
Acuff is the complete point guard, able to blend scoring efficiency with floor-general brilliance. He knows where the ball needs to travel to expose opposing defenses and has a knack for dictating pace. When the game around him is moving fast, Acuff can slow down an execute, but he isn't afraid of embracing a fastbreak and is an expert at throwing lobs in transition.
And he is a tantalizing offensive prospect because Acuff doesn't need to be on-the-ball to be successful. He proved himself as a spot-up shooter at Arkansas and can fit in the modern NBA as a floor spacer.
The biggest questions for Acuff lie on the defensive end. His camp will argue that Acuff can improve overtime and the ankle injury played a role. That might be true, but he struggled to keep opposing point guards out of the paint and got held up against off-ball screens far too often during his lone collegiate season. A defensive system with strong rim protection will need to be built around Acuff.
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: What Arkansas basketball’s Darius Acuff Jr. brings to Sacramento Kings