Darius Acuff launched his SEC Player of the Year campaign with a bang on Saturday by leading No. 18 Arkansas to an 86-75 win over No. 19 Tennessee in the conference opener for both teams.
The Razorbacks’ star freshman established a new career-high with 29 points and thoroughly outplayed the only player in the league who finished higher in the 2025 recruiting rankings. Nate Ament’s struggle-filed 13-point performance for Tennessee (10-4, 0-1 SEC) underscored the big difference between the SEC’s most highly touted diaper dandies.
Acuff is about production, whereas Ament is about potential.
Ament finished one spot higher in the 247Sports recruiting rankings at No. 4, is higher in the CBS Sports NBA Draft prospect rankings and may wind up having a better NBA career. But there is no debating who the better player is right now.
It’s Acuff, and it’s not particularly close.
In two of his last three games, the 6-foot-3 guard has torched two of the most perennially elite defenses in college basketball. In a Dec. 20 loss to Houston, he made 9 of 15 shots from the field, finishing with 27 points, seven assists and five rebounds.
Against the Volunteers, he hit 9 of 16 shots, which included a run of eight straight Arkansas points during the middle of the second half.
You won’t find another guard in college basketball capable of stacking better performances against those two defenses. Such performances are becoming routine for Acuff.
This time of year, it can be hard to decipher what’s real and what’s fake. Some players pad their stats against poor competition in November and December, then crash back to reality in league play. Freshmen are among the most susceptible, as the grind of college basketball begins taking its toll.
But all indications so far are that Acuff may be impervious to the trend. His least productive games this season came against Winthrop and Jackson State.
Much of his best work has come against Arkansas’ best competition. He’s scored at least 16 points against every high-major opponent, which bodes well for the Razorbacks hopes of contending in the SEC.
A year ago, the Razorbacks took a 76-52 loss at Tennessee to open league play.
It was a harbinger of the struggles to come for a program that dug out of an 0-5 hole to finish 8-10 in the conference before making a surprising Sweet 16 run as a No. 10 seed.
Cinderella’s slippers were a strange look for the Razorbacks, and the Hogs appear to have traded them in for a pair of boots this year. Arkansas went pound-for-pound with a physical Tennessee team on the glass and in the paint, blocking a season-high 10 shots.
Acuff better than Ament
Arkansas isn’t elite defensively yet, but there were encouraging signs against Tennessee. Billy Richmond hounded Nate Ament in the backcourt at one point and forced a 10-second violation. Then with 3:20 to play in a five-point game, the Razorbacks forced a 5-second violation as Ament couldn’t find anywhere to pass the ball.
Those two turnovers were part of a frustrating day for the 6-foot-10 prospect. Ament finished just 5 of 11 from the free-throw line and didn’t reach double figures until the game was out of reach in the final minute.
Tennessee and Arkansas are configured differently, as the Volunteers also have a veteran point guard in Ja’Kobi Gillespie and a well-established defense. But the fate of both teams will be determined by how far their freshman stars can take them.
Acuff is already playing at an All-American level. With the Razorbacks mired in an early slump, he provided their first seven points. Later on, he capped an 8-0 run with a dagger of a 3-pointer to put Arkansas ahead 79-68 with 2:09 remaining. At every turn of his first SEC game, he rose to meet the moment.
Arkansas coach John Calipari has shepherded the development of many great freshman guards over the decades. He’s got his next great one.
Rick Barnes has coached his share of elite freshmen as well, both at Tennessee and Texas. There is no denying Ament’s potential.
But Saturday’s SEC opener was a reminder of the difference between potential and production when it comes to building around freshmen.
Tennessee has promise with Ament. Arkansas has a sure-thing with Acuff.
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