{"id":677495,"date":"2026-03-25T01:43:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677495\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T01:43:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T01:43:32","slug":"arkansas-freshman-darius-acuff-jr-lands-historic-shoe-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/677495\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. lands historic shoe deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elm:icon;slk:Field Level Media;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fieldlevelmedia.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"Field Level Media\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"312\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"pr-2.5 max-w-[150px] max-h-[40px] min-[601px]:max-w-[115px]\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:auto;max-height:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bc126ea0-acd9-11ef-adff-76a94cf3e57a.png\"\/><\/a>Tue, March 24, 2026 at 5:15 PM UTC<img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1099\" height=\"733\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cd8cd5a2ceb03c80dae110c0695aae99.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Feb 25, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius Acuff Jr. (5) drives to the basket as Texas A&amp;M Aggies guard Pop Isaacs (2) defends during the second half at Bud Walton Arena. Arkansas won 99-84. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p> (Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p>Arkansas All-American Darius Acuff Jr. has a deal with Reebok to become the first NCAA men&#8217;s athlete to land a signature shoe from a major U.S. brand while still in college.<\/p>\n<p>Reebok head of basketball Jide Osifeso confirmed the historic agreement with ESPN on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>A 19-year-old freshman for the Razorbacks, Acuff was named the 2025-26 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year after becoming the first player to lead the league in points and assists per game since LSU legend Pete Maravich in 1969-70.<\/p>\n<p>After winning the SEC tournament, Arkansas has reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed. The Razorbacks (28-8) face West Region No. 1 seed Arizona (34-2) on Thursday night in San Jose, Calif.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-3 Acuff is averaging 23.3 points, 6.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 35 games (all starts) this season while shooting 44.6% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n<p>The Detroit native is projected to be a top-10 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Acuff becomes the first men&#8217;s basketball player to receive a signature shoe with Reebok since John Wall, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tue, March 24, 2026 at 5:15 PM UTC Feb 25, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Darius&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[83452,593,7,217,130,86231,231,772,1544,21104,7701,12453],"class_list":["post-677495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-acuff","tag-arkansas","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-espn","tag-jide-osifeso","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-pete-maravich","tag-reebok","tag-the-razorbacks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116287290825681138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677495","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=677495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}