Darius Acuff was an iron man, a marathon runner, for this Arkansas team. He did what he did while logging maximum minutes and being asked to do so much at the offensive end of the floor. It’s easy to pounce on a player for taking plays off on defense, but the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth for Arkansas fans and NBA draft analysts is that Acuff had to make tradeoffs. It doesn’t sound professional, but in a limited and very imperfect situation, Acuff did have to sacrifice some defense for his offense. All in all, Arkansas did pretty well as a result of that calculated move. The Hogs got a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, reached the Sweet 16, and won the SEC Tournament. Not bad.
