Arkansas freshmen Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas were plotting their on-court relationship in chats while they were still recruits.
“We talked about it in high school when we first committed and like I said, it don’t just take a game, it takes practice, workouts, just it takes a lot of communication, I would say, and we have that,” Acuff said.
The duo’s chemistry is a big reason the Razorbacks (28-8) have advanced to the Sweet 16. Fourth-seeded Arkansas faces No. 1 seed Arizona (34-2) on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region.
Acuff, an AP first-team All-American, scored 36 points in the Razorbacks’ 94-88 second-round victory over High Point on Saturday night. Thomas scored 19.
“It takes a lot of communication, a lot of togetherness, like Darius said,” Thomas said. “We spoke about that before the season and when you’re genuinely happy for your teammate, you’re genuinely happy for your brother, then you really get excited and you get enjoyment out of seeing him dominate and do well. So like when he’s on, it’s like, ‘Yeah, keep doing you.’”