Instant Reaction: Razorbacks blitz Southern in season opener

Year 2 of the John Calipari Experience for No. 14 Arkansas is off to a winning start with a 109-77 rout over Southern.

The Razorbacks were led by Trevon Brazile's 25 points and freshman guard Darius Acuff's 22 points in his college debut. Acuff scored 14 of his 22 points in the final 3:15 of the first half.

Here are three instant takeaways from the season-opening win against the Jaguars.

Quadruple shooting threat

Arkansas won't be immune from the shooting monsters appearing every now and then on an off night, but just 4 minutes into the new season, the Razorbacks hit three three-pointers from three different players.

The Hogs starting lineup has four shooters on the floor to start the game in Acuff Jr, DJ Wagner, Billy Richmond and Brazile.

Arkansas shot just 32.7% from deep a season ago, finishing 11th in the SEC, an anomaly for a Calipari coached team. In his final three seasons at Kentucky, Calipari's teams finished in the top 2 in the conference in three-point percentage.

In a limited sample size, Arkansas is much closer to the 2023-24 Kentucky team that shot 40.9%, 3.5% better than anyone else in the SEC. The team finished the night 10-for-28.

Brazile continues to ascend

This time last year, Calipari's tune on Brazile was very different to the skill set that he showed on the court.

Calipari portrayed Brazile as a nice piece that just so happened to be avaliable to him because he played for the Hogs under former coach Eric Musselman.

Not only did Brazile lead the Hogs in scoring with a career-high 25, he out played both of the other frontcourt players with a double-double, finishing with 11 rebounds.

He also made 8 of his 10 free throws and drilled a three. To round out his box score, he also pitched in a steal and a block before also adding to his growing vicious dunk collection .