No. 21 Arkansas will look to open coach John Calipari’s second season in charge with a third win in four games on Friday night when the Razorbacks take on Southern Conference foe Samford in Fayetteville, Ark.
Arkansas and Samford met in Fayetteville on Nov. 10, 2017, a decisive 95-56 victory for the home team that saw six Razorbacks score in double figures en route to the wire-to-wire blowout. However, this isn’t anywhere near the Samford program that came to Arkansas nearly a decade ago.
Former Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff took over a program inherited from rising star Bucky McMillan that has become one of the most consistent mid-majors in the country since 2021. McMillan led the Bulldogs to four consecutive 20-win seasons, including a 29-6 record and an NCAA Tournament berth two seasons ago, before departing for Texas A&M this past offseason.
The first game of the Acuff era saw Samford (2-1) fall to Tulane by 13 points on the road, but the Bulldogs bounced back last Friday with an 82-72 win over South Carolina State. The Bulldogs defeated Texas Southern 93-90 in overtime on Wednesday.
Jadin Booth is averaging 27.7 points per game after scoring 34 against Tulane, 26 against SC State and 23 against Texas Southern. He transferred from Division II Florida Southern for his final season of eligibility and is 18-of-37 shooting (48.6%) from 3-point range.
“I think every time he shoots, it’s going in,” Acuff said of Booth. “And the thing that’s so good about him that is our guys find him. They look for him.”
Arkansas (2-1) opened its season with a 109-77 thrashing of Southern on Nov. 3 but fell 69-66 against Tom Izzo and then-No. 22 Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich., on Saturday. Presented with a relatively easy bounce-back opportunity against in-state foe Central Arkansas on Tuesday, the Razorbacks delivered with a 37-point win that saw three starters score at least 15 points.
That trio of Darius Acuff Jr., Meleek Thomas and Karter Knox combined for 57 points, one more than Central Arkansas’ 56 total points. Acuff Jr. led the unit with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting, while Knox added 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting and Thomas chipped in 17 on 6-of-17.
Acuff Jr. leads the team with an average of 19.7 points per game this season, while Thomas is at 18. Both players are averaging at least 15 field-goal attempts per game, which is something their veteran coach is trying to manage.
“I got some guys that try to shoot too many balls, would you say?” Calipari said. “But they’re fearless, and they could run for president because they have an outworldly ego, and I don’t want to take that away. I’ve got to juggle balls as we go and continue to coach them.”
