Darius Acuff Jr. is best guard John Calipari has ever had, says ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins
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Darius Acuff Jr. put on a masterful show of offensive force on Wednesday night despite not even winning the game.
While No. 20 Arkansas fell in a double-overtime thriller at No. 25 Alabama, Acuff did everything he possibly could to make the result different. He played all 50 minutes, poured in 49 points, with 5 rebounds and 5 assists mixed in, as the freshman from Detroit continued to show why he could be one of the top picks in this summer’s NBA Draft.
The college basketball world was watching the SEC marathon on Wednesday night, and so was ESPN basketball analyst Kendrick Perkins. After a night sleep to digest what he had witnessed at Coleman Coliseum, Perkins came on ESPN’s First Take on Thursday morning and flatly said that Acuff is the cream of the crop when it comes to John Calipari guards. That’s some really great company, considering the guard wizardry that Calipari has coached, including No. 1 overall draft pick Derrick Rose, who played for Calipari at Memphis.
Rose was the top pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, and almost 2 decades later here comes the 6-foot-3 Acuff.
“He is the best guard that John Calipari has coached. I’m not talking about NBA career, college career,” said Perkins, mindful that Acuff is just the latest in a legion of guard phenoms that Calipari has passed through to the NBA.
Rose left Calipari’s clutches in 2008 and heard his name called first in that 2008 draft. Acuff is in the mix to do the same, especially if he keeps performing near the level that he did on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa.
Acuff is averaging 22.3 points and 6.2 assists per game during a virtuoso freshman season, and he’s shooting a ridiculous 50.9% from the field.
NBA scouts are taking notice, and just maybe it’ll translate to the draft this summer. Acuff is viewed as one of college basketball’s best bets to be a top-10 pick in the NBA Draft later this year. At Kalshi, he has a 76% chance to be a top-10 selection:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
