Weight on Darius Acuff Jr.'s shoulders is nothing new ahead of NCAA Tournament

Darius Acuff Jr. strode into the media room inside Bridgestone Arena Sunday after being named the SEC Tournament MVP and leading Arkansas to an 86-75 victory over Vanderbilt in the SEC Championship Game with a majority of the net that the Razorbacks had cut down hanging around his neck.

It was a perfect metaphor for the freshman guard from Detroit, who is the X-factor for the Hogs and their hopes of bringing a national championship to Fayetteville for the first time since 1994. 

Yes, Arkansas is led by legendary head coach John Calipari. They feature another talented freshman guard in Meleek Thomas, an experienced backcourt with seniors Malique Ewin, Trevon Brazile and Nick Pringle, a beloved "glue guy" in Billy Richmond III and an elite facilitator in junior guard DJ Wagner. 

But it's Acuff who makes Arkansas a scary matchup for anyone who plays them in March. 

Jay Bilas weighs in on Darius Acuff Jr.

Arkansas' SEC Tournament opponents already found out how good Acuff is in postseason play. 

After winning the SEC Player of the Year award and being named the SEC Freshman of the Year, Acuff scored 37 points, including a pivotal corner jumper to put Arkansas up by 4 late, in the Razorbacks' quarterfinal triumph over Oklahoma on March 13. 

A scrappy Ole Miss squad limited him to just four points in the first half of Arkansas' semi-final bout with the Rebels on March 14 before he scored 20 in the second half en route to a 93-90 overtime win. 

And on the biggest stage he'd played on in his basketball career in Sunday's SEC title game, Acuff scored 30, including back-to-back threes to end the first half, the former of which had the Vanderbilt bench in shock. 

"Just my teammates believing in me, I give credit to them," Acuff said Sunday when asked about his strong trio of performances in Nashville. "They trust me with the ball, and I just gotta go make the plays."

Acuff scored the third-most points by a single player in SEC Tournament history per HogStats.com, and the most points by a player in the SEC Tournament among those who played just three games. 

Acuff also had 13 rebounds and 23 assists over Arkansas' three games in the SEC Tournament to complement his scoring prowess.

That's why ESPN's Jay Bilas, who called Sunday's SEC title game and saw Acuff's heroics up close, named him as the defining factor in the Razorbacks making an NCAA Tournament run. 

"Arkansas freshman Darius Acuff Jr. is the type of player who can carry a team to a Final Four," Bilas wrote while predicting that four-seed Arkansas would win its Round of 64 matchup over 13-seed Hawaii on Thursday.

Should Arkansas beat Hawaii and five-seed Wisconsin beat 12-seed High Point, a second-round matchup between the Hogs and Badgers would be on tap. 

Bilas' prediction for that potential contest was skewed towards Wisconsin until the final sentence. 

"The Razorbacks have Darius Acuff Jr., and nobody else does," Bilas wrote, predicting that Arkansas would move on to the Sweet 16 to face one-seed Arizona.

There might not be a better way to summarize Arkansas' potential for a March Madness run than that. 

William Shakespeare once wrote that "all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." On the stage of college basketball, there are few brighter stars and better players than Acuff, who has the potential to become an NCAA Tournament legend beginning on Thursday.