Darius Acuff Jr. and the Arkansas Razorbacks secured a No. 4 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament after winning the SEC title, finishing the 2025-26 college basketball regular season with a 26-8 record and 13-5 in conference play. And Arkansas opened March Madness on Thursday with a first-round matchup against the No. 13 seed Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.
Acuff has emerged as one of the best players in the nation during his freshman season at Arkansas. The 6-foot-3 guard out of Detroit entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 22.9 points per game, seventh in the nation, along with 3.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists. He was also named a consensus first-team All-American and won SEC Player of the Year.
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Entering Arkansas vs. Hawaii, Acuff had totaled 216 assists in 33 games played during his freshman season. This mark was good for the second-most assists in a single season in Razorbacks history, trailing former point guard Kareem Reid (219) by just three.
With 4:30 remaining in the first half, Acuff hit Malique Ewin for an alley-oop dunk, increasing Arkansas' lead to 42-30. This marked Acuff's fourth assist of the day and 220th of the season. In doing so, Acuff has now passed Reid for the most assists in a single season in Razorbacks history, a record that had lasted for 30 years.
Sitting behind Acuff and Reid on the single-season assists leaderboards for Arkansas are third-placed Lee Mayberry, who recorded 209 assists in 1991, and fourth-placed Corey Beck, who tallied 207 in 1995.
"That last assist for Darius Acuff puts him at 220 assists for the season," Arkansas Razorbacks Men's Basketball wrote on X. "That's the most by a Razorback in school history. #AcuffPOY"
With a win over Hawaii, Acuff and Arkansas would move on to the second round, where they would face No. 12 seed High Point.
