{"id":672696,"date":"2026-03-22T14:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672696\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:01:02","slug":"jay-williams-evaluates-darius-acuff-as-nba-prospect-potential-no-1-overall-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672696\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Williams evaluates Darius Acuff as NBA prospect, potential No. 1 overall pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arkansas<\/a>\u2018 Darius Acuff<\/a> is already carrying the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16, so why can\u2019t he go No. 1 overall in the upcoming NBA Draft? That\u2019s the question ESPN\u2019s Jay Williams asked Sunday, based on watching the tape.<\/p>\n

In fact, Acuff\u2019s offensive talent is so elite, you\u2019d be hard pressed to pass on that talent in the draft. Williams said the Arkansas star is a combination of a few NBA stars, molded into his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think potentially, if I were a GM, I would highly consider (Acuff with the No. 1 overall pick),\u201d Williams said on SportsCenter. \u201cI think he\u2019s better with DJ Wagner playing off the ball \u2026 You said Damian Lillard, I say he reminds me of Stephon Marbury a little bit because of his shoulders, the way he utilizes that body, the way he can bulldoze you to the basket. And he has good range. His range can improve \u2026 I think I\u2019m willing to look over some of the defensive challenges because of how prolific he is offensively. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd like Steph Curry, grew defensively, I think I\u2019ve seen players grow on the defensive end, and I think he\u2019s still a ton of room for improvement. But, his offense is so elite. It\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acuff was his normal self<\/a> throughout the game in the Round of 32 against High Point, putting together a great all-around performance. He shot 50% from the field on 22 shots, putting up 36 points. Two free throws in the closing moments were icing on the cake as well. Those are numbers we are used to seeing from Acuff at this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink it\u2019s that kid Darius Acuff,\u201d head coach John Calipari\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cWe put it in his hands and I trust him and the team trusts him\u2026 What you saw is what he means.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for all the talk of individual performance, Acuff remains incredibly team-focused. He told the TBS broadcast that only one thing is on his mind in these moments \u2014 winning. Making sure Arkansas can stay alive is what Acuff wants more than anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning, that\u2019s the only thing on my mind,\u201d Acuff said. \u201cWhatever I got to do to get my team to win, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do\u2026 It\u2019s been a great journey. A lot of learning, I\u2019m going to keep learning. It\u2019s been great playing with these guys. Like I always said, I love playing with them. So, want to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arkansas\u2018 Darius Acuff is already carrying the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16, so why can\u2019t he go No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,73892,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-672696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-darius-acuff-25-img-academy","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116273194110035782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}