John Calipari reveals Darius Acuff was in walking boot before 49-point outing
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Wednesday night’s Arkansas-Alabama showdown was one for the books. The Crimson Tide’s thrilling 117-115 double overtime triumph was highlighted by possibly the performance of the season from Razorbacks’ superstar freshman guard Darius Acuff, who sent the game to overtime and poured in 49 points without sitting a single second of the contest.
What makes this even more impressive is that there were concerns Acuff wouldn’t be available for the contest. In his postgame press conference, Arkansas head coach John Calipari told reporters that Acuff was in a walking boot ahead of Wednesday’s barnburner.
“He was in a boot for two days, and still did that,” Calipari said. “I said, ‘you think you might have to miss this game?’ And he said, ‘are you nuts?'”
Acuff shot 16/27 from the floor against Alabama. He knocked down 6 3-pointers and went 11/12 at the free throw line. He added 5 rebounds and 5 assists to almost single-handedly will the Razorbacks over the hump.
Arkansas (19-7, 9-4 SEC) will try to rebound from its loss on Saturday at home versus Missouri (4:00 p.m. E.T., ESPN). The Tigers (18-8, 8-5 SEC) have won 4 of their last 5 games to put themselves squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Alabama, who has now won 5 straight in SEC play, will also face a team of Tigers on Saturday when they travel to LSU (6:00 p.m. E.T., SEC Network).
