John Calipari pushing Darius Acuff Jr. to be ‘best player in the country’
By David Wasson
Published:
Arkansas coach John Calipari has mentored some of the best college basketball players in the country, and the veteran coach sees the potential in Razorbacks freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. to become one of the dominant forces in the game in the 2025-26 season.
“He is a beast kid. I call him a beast,” an impassioned Calipari said after his Arkansas team rallied to down LSU 85-81 on Saturday.
“Really skilled and is wired and driven to get better. It means something to him. When you don’t care about it or delusional about what you are going to do, it is no fun coaching. … I asked him ‘Do you know how good you are? Because I want you to be the best player in the country, not just a good player.'”
Acuff dropped a career-high 31 points on LSU on Saturday night, including 24 points in the second half to help the Razorbacks rally from 4 points down to the Tigers at halftime.
The true freshman from Detroit is averaging 19.6 points per game and 6.2 assists this season, but Saturday was one of his finest performances. He hit 10 of his 11 shots from the field in the second half and made all 3 of his 3-pointers.
“He is legitimately good and he plays on a team that really respects him and he respects everybody,” Calipari said.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
