LEXINGTON, Ky. — Darius Acuff Jr. became the first five-star basketball recruit in the class of 2025 to make his college decision Friday afternoon.
The point guard picked John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Acuff — a 6-foot-3 playmaker from Detroit — was a major Kentucky recruiting target while Calipari was the head coach of the Wildcats, earning a scholarship offer from UK at the end of his sophomore year of high school and coming to Lexington for an official visit during Big Blue Madness weekend last season.
His commitment to Calipari on Friday was no surprise.
The former UK coach was long thought to be a favorite for Acuff, and the Razorbacks emerged as a frontrunner in his recruitment shortly after Calipari left Lexington for Fayetteville — stepping down as the Wildcats’ coach after 15 seasons — three months ago.
People are also reading…
Acuff, a powerful and offensively gifted player who has similarities to past Calipari guards, is the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, according to 247Sports. He picked Arkansas over fellow finalists Kansas and Michigan, and he had additional scholarship offers from UConn, Michigan State, Alabama and a host of other high-major programs.
247Sports currently has just 15 players regarded as five-star prospects in the 2025 class, the group that will be high school seniors this coming season. Acuff is the first to commit to a college, and only three other players — AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer and Darryn Peterson — are listed ahead of him in the 247Sports rankings.
All three of those prospects have also been UK recruiting targets dating back to the Calipari era.
While new UK coach Mark Pope has reoffered many of the highest-rated 2025 targets from Calipari’s tenure, the current hierarchy of the Wildcats’ recruiting board is still a bit of a mystery just days removed from the final major evaluation period of the summer.
Pope will have at least seven open scholarships following the 2024-25 season after loading up on experienced players from the transfer portal in his first wave of additions as Kentucky’s coach. He does not yet have any commitments from the 2025 class, and his next recruiting group is expected to be a mix of high school prospects and college transfers as the new UK coaching staff continues to build a base of roster continuity moving forward.
While the Wildcats likely won’t add one-and-done recruits at the rate of the Calipari era, Pope has promised to bring in McDonald’s All-American-caliber players, and several of his current targets fit that description.
One of the Cats’ top 2025 targets remains central Kentucky native Jasper Johnson, a 6-4 guard who is ranked No. 12 nationally by 247Sports. Johnson has visited UK multiple times since Pope took over for Calipari — his father is former Kentucky football star Dennis Johnson — and he recently cut his list to five schools with plans to make a college announcement next month.
Alabama and North Carolina are seen as the current favorites, along with Kentucky, while Arkansas and Louisville are also on his list of finalists.
Johnson attended the TBT game featuring La Familia, a team of former UK stars, in Rupp Arena on Tuesday night. Pope was also at that game, along with several players on the current team. Johnson, who previously starred at Woodford County — where his father is the head football coach — will play his senior year of high school at Overtime Elite in Atlanta.
Acuff marks Calipari’s first major high school recruiting victory since taking the Arkansas job.
The former UK coach’s 2024-25 roster will feature six players with ties to the Wildcats’ program. Zvonimir Ivisic, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner all followed him to Fayetteville after playing for Kentucky last season, and three of the high school players from his 2024 UK class — Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond — decommitted from the Cats to play for the Hogs.
Calipari also landed Johnell Davis (Florida Atlantic) and Jonas Aidoo (Tennessee) in the transfer portal, retained Trevon Brazile off the previous Arkansas roster, and picked up a few other minor additions for his first Razorbacks team.
All three of Pope’s high school recruits on the current Kentucky roster had pre-existing ties.
Collin Chandler was going to be Pope’s top-ranked commitment ever at BYU before flipping to UK after the coaching change. In-state star Travis Perry was part of Calipari’s 2024 class and renewed his commitment to the Cats shortly after Pope took the job. Trent Noah was another Kentucky high school standout and longtime fan of the Wildcats’ program. He was not recruited by Calipari but flipped his commitment from South Carolina to UK after Pope took over.
Kentucky and Arkansas will face each other just once in the 2024-25 regular season. That game will be played in Rupp Arena, with a date for the matchup not yet announced.
