Copyright Arkansas Online
FAYETTEVILLE -- Darius Acuff Jr.'s college career is off to a huge start. The top-shelf freshman point guard scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting to help the University of Arkansas men's basketball team open the season with a 109-77 rout of Southern University on Monday. Acuff was the Hogs' second-leading scorer behind senior Trevon Brazile's career-high, 25-point output. Acuff went off in the first half, scoring 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3 of 3 from three-point range. The 6-3, 190-pounder from Detroit took just three shots in the second half, a pair from three-point range, and made just one of them. Acuff's blazing first half included a flurry at the end when he accounted for the Hogs' final nine points in the last 1:43. "It was nice because it was like a 13-point game and you look up and all of a sudden it's 25," Arkansas Coach John Calipari said. Fellow freshman Meleek Thomas called Acuff super special. "He's super talented when it comes to offense, and he's really getting very, very good on defense," Thomas said. "To see him increasingly get better on defense while still putting on that display on offense, it's just like you can see his game coming to a complete game." Hot line The Razorbacks got off to a blistering start to the season from the free-throw line by making 86.2% of its attempts. Arkansas, a 75.2% free throw shooting team last season, made 25 of 29 shots against Southern. Senior forward Trevon Brazile, a career 62% free-throw shooter, made 8 of 10 from the line to lead the way. "Because of T.B," Coach John Calipari said. "He bent his legs today. I said, 'I see you out there making 60 threes when you jump, so jump from the foul line.' " The Hogs started 17 of 18 (94.4%) on free throws in the first half. Brazile led the way with a 5-of-5 performance, while Darius Acuff Jr. (3 for 3) was perfect, along with Billy Richmond III, Malique Ewin and Isaiah Sealy, who were all 2 for 2. The only miss of the opening half came from Meleek Thomas, who went 3 for 4. Brazile missed the first free throw of the second half on a chance to complete a three-point play at the 19:40 mark. Dunk count Nick Pringle had the Razorbacks' first dunk of the season on a feed from Meleek Thomas at 4:56 in the first half, but it was Arkansas' only slam of the half. In the second half, the Razorbacks got to the rim time after time for jams and driving layups. Arkansas notched six dunks in the second half: 3 by Pringle, 2 from Trevon Brazile and 1 by Malique Ewin. No Knox Sophomore forward Karter Knox did not play in the opener due to a sprained toe, the UA announced about an hour before tipoff. Knox wore sweatpants and cheered on teammates while often dribbling a basketball during pregame warmups. The 6-6 wing from Tampa, Fla., hit 8 of 12 shots, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, and had 23 points and 11 rebounds across two exhibition wins over Cincinnati and Memphis. His 23 points tied Trevon Brazile and Billy Richmond III for third on the team in the exhibitions behind Meleek Thomas (41) and Darius Acuff Jr. (34). Pick, roll, flush Nick Pringle and Meleek Thomas paired up to create one of the top first-half highlights. Pringle set a screen on the far-left wing with Thomas dribbling up court to use it. When Pringle's defender came off him to assist on Thomas, Pringle quickly released toward the basket and Thomas fired a quick pass for the crowd-pleasing lob dunk and a 37-24 Arkansas lead. Teamwork Three Razorbacks combined to set up a swished three-pointer from Darius Acuff Jr. late in the first half. Nick Pringle went high to win a tipped rebound after a miss from Trevon Brazile. Pringle swatted the ball out past the three-point arc, where Meleek Thomas won another tip with a defender and then scooped the loose ball. Thomas immediately saw Acuff on the left wing, whipped a pass to him and watched the three-pointer go through, a mere seven seconds after Brazile's miss, for a 46-28 Arkansas lead. Triple digits Arkansas reached triple-digit scoring with 4:25 left in the game. Nick Pringle cracked the century mark with a dunk, his fourth of the game, on a nice drive and feed from Springdale High School product Isaiah Sealy. The score gave the Hogs a 101-64 lead. Up 10, 20, 30 It didn't take the Razorbacks long to build their first 10-point cushion, hitting the spread at 12-2 on a pair of Billy Richmond III free throws at the 16:33 mark. The next 10-point gap took much longer. The Hogs reached the milestone on a Darius Acuff Jr. three-point play on a jumper and free throw with 1:43 left in the opening half to give Arkansas a 51-29 advantage. The Razorbacks reached a 30-point spread on a driving layup by Meleek Thomas at 13:25 in the second half to make it 76-46. 4-point play Southern guard Michael Jacobs converted a rare four-point play midway through the first half as the Jaguars cashed in an extended possession. The possession started at 7:15 after a missed shot from Arkansas guard D.J. Wagner. Jacobs missed a jumper, but teammate DaMariee Jones snagged the rebound in a tie ball situation. The Jaguars retained the ball on alternating possessions and Jacobs canned his three-pointer from the left wing as he was being fouled by Billy Richmond III, who was immediately sent to the bench. Jacobs' four-point play touched off a 10-4 run for the Jaguars, which included a pair of three-pointers from Fazl Oshodi, in a span of 1:34, causing John Calipari to call a 30-second timeout for adjustments. Openers Arkansas improved to 84-19 in season-opening games and 93-10 in home openers with its seventh consecutive season-opening win. The Razorbacks have won 52 of their last 55 season openers. The losses were at No. 1 UCLA in 1973-74, versus UMass (coached by John Calipari) in 1994-95 and in overtime versus Texas in El Paso, Texas, in 2018-19. Arkansas has won 52 straight home openers and all 33 of its openers at Walton Arena. Series update Arkansas improved to 4-0 against Southern 3-0 at Walton Arena and 2-0 in season openers following an 86-68 win on Nov. 13, 2015. In their last meeting, Arkansas won 79-44 at Walton Arena behind Davonte Davis' 14 points and 7 rebounds, with Moses Moody, JD Notae and Jalen Tate scoring 12 each. Acuff listed Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. was 1 of 50 players, seven of them freshmen, selected for the Naismith Trophy men's college player of the year watch list released on Monday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Acuff, the top-ranked point guard in the nation by 247 Sports and ESPN, has made several preseason lists. Those include 1 of 20 players for the Bob Cousy Award, 1 of 5 of Dick Vitale's Diaper Dandies, 1 of 10 Top NCAA Freshmen by Andy Katz and third-team preseason All-SEC by league coaches. First five Arkansas Coach John Calipari went with a starting five of guards D.J. Wagner, Billy Richmond III and Darius Acuff Jr., along with forwards Trevon Brazile and Nick Pringle. Meleek Thomas was the sixth man, subbing in for Wagner at the 17:15 mark.
