The Sweet 16 matchup between No. 1-seed Arizona and No. 4-seed Arkansas is growing nearer with Thursday night at 8:45 CT on CBS.
Arizona (34-2) and Arkansas (28-8) are both led by freshmen players with three of them being projected as lottery picks in the 2026 NBA Draft. Point guard Darius Acuff leads the Razorbacks. He's averaging 23.3 points per game, 3.1 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 0.8 steals while shooting 44.6% from behind the 3-point line. He is joined by fellow freshman guard Meleek Thomas who is being projected as a late first-round pick.
Houston Coach Kelvin Sampson recently joked that coaching four freshmen is going to put him in an early grave. Arkansas' John Calipari commented on his two freshmen Wednesday during the final practice before Thursday's game.
"This profession does that to you," Calipari said. "But the reward in it is what Kelvin is seeing, what I see in this team, and the joy I get from what I do is when someone says I knew Darius Acuff was good, but I never realized he was that good. I knew Meleek Thomas was good, but I never knew he was this good."
Arizona has two talented freshmen expected to go very early in the upcoming NBA Draft. Guard Brayden Burries and forward Koa Peat. The size of Peat, 6-foot-8, 235-pounds, is why some feel the Razorbacks will have a tough time with Arizona.
"Well, I recruited him pretty hard and got to know he and his family," Calipari said. "Unbelievable young person, winner mentality. Very physical. It's going to be hard for us. We can throw four guys at him. He can throw them all to the floor. I think he won three state titles. He's good. He's a terrific player."
Peat is averaging 13.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Burries, 6-4, 205, leads Arizona in scoring with 16.0 points per game while also adding 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals. He's shooting 39.2% from deep.
Calipari also was asked where he has seen the most growth from Acuff during the course of the season.
"Maturity, leadership skills, body language, whoo, went from -- it screams now," Calipari said. "Your body language screams. His really screamed. You look at him now, he's like all the best players that I've coached. He's like that. You never really see him.
"The only time he gets mad is when I really get on him. I had a meeting in my office and I said, I'm telling you, my entire career I'm hardest on my best players because if I can coach them hard, I can coach everyone on my team hard. He said, I got it, I'm good. He wasn't great, but he said he was good. And I've been hard on him."
Calipari had high praise for both Acuff and Thomas while also comparing them to two former players he coached.
"There were times that I'm pointing him out in front of this team in areas that he's got to get better and improve," Calipari said. "But it's -- he has improved -- what I did not know was his will to win. You've got to coach a guy. The skill stuff, I knew he could score. People, well, you can't play Meleek Thomas and him; they'll never play together. Come on, man, I've done this 30 years. Maybe a little bit longer.
"But I've had two players like them, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, if you want me to keep going I'll start naming names, that had to play together. You know what, Eric Bledsoe and John Wall are as close as any two players that I've coached. These two are the same. And they've got to hear stuff, oh, you should shoot more, he should shoot more. They don't listen to it. They lock in and they care about one another. They know if -- they cheer for each other. If one of them gets it going, the other is happy as heck."
Calipari also spoke about Burries and senior guard Jaden Bradley who will face off against Acuff and Thomas.
"He's really good," Calipari said of Burries. "He scores three levels, active defensively, better defensively than I thought a freshman would be. Hats off to Tom (Lloyd) on that, too.
"Tommy gets that kid who can do what he does offensively to guard, it's saying something. But he's good. Wow. He's really good."
Senior Trevon Brazile has also played a big role for the Razorbacks. He was the lone Razorback who returned when Calipari replaced Eric Musselman. Against High Point with the scored tied at 83, Acuff went on a 7-0 run to put the game away and Brazile wasn't surprised.
"We've been seeing it all season," Brazile said. "We know he's going to go get a bucket. We don't think nobody can guard him, especially on one-on-one. That's just him with his confidence and our confidence in him to go make a play."
While Calipari was busy praising players, Billy Richmond III also talked about what it's like to play for a coach who has put so many athletes in the NBA.
"It's great, getting to have that experience that they had in college, it's all a brotherhood so we try to engrain the same thing in us, just come together and be together on and off the court," Richmond said.
With Arizona being a big favorite, Brazile was candid when he explained Arkansas' mindset heading into the game.
"You know, we know it's going to be a dogfight, so we're just going in mentally preparing ourselves for that, physically, also," Brazile said. "We know it's going to be a fast-paced game so we're just getting ready to go play our game and we'll see what happens tomorrow."
Richmond scored 15 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the win over High Point. Richmond also commented on the nickname Billy Goat.
"I mean, my role is just do the little things for my teammates," Richmond said. "I know I ain't the best in scoring, facilitating, but I play my part from here and there and just starting to open a whole new level up for my game and just giving my teammates that is what I try to do. It's just a cool name. Coach Cal game up with it, so obviously like "Ba-ha-ha," little billy goat."
Thursday night's winner will face either Texas or Purdue in the Elite 8.
