The Sweet 16 game between Arizona and Arkansas will be the first of its kind in NCAA Tournament history
By Cameron Salerno Mar 24, 2026 at 10:04 am ET • 6 min read 
Getty Images The 2025-26 college basketball season as a whole has been highlighted by the play of a historic freshman class that keeps getting better as time goes on. The NCAA Tournament has been no different. Arkansas star Darius Acuff Jr. scored the second-most points (36) in NCAA Tournament history by a freshman, which was just four off of breaking the record held by De'Aaron Fox.
The irony is, Acuff moved into second place ahead of BYU star AJ Dybantsa, who scored 35 points against Texas less than 48 hours before in what could be his final college game. The culmination of what has arguably been the best freshman class in college basketball history will be on display when No. 4 seed Arkansas faces No. 1 seed Arizona on Thursday in the Sweet 16.
That game will mark the first time in Sweet 16 history where the top two scorers in points per game on each team are both freshmen. For Arkansas, that would be Acuff and fellow guard Meleek Thomas. And for Arizona, its dynamic duo of guard Brayden Burries and Koa Peat has been one of the best in the sport, regardless of class.
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Arizona entered the tournament getting 41 points per game from freshmen, which ranked ahead of Duke for the top spot. Acuff and Thomas aren't far behind, with that duo averaging 38.9 points per game.
"It's a really talented and special class," Peat told CBS Sports inside Arizona's locker room after Sunday's second-round win over Utah State. "It's cool to see guys I played with in camps, like USA and AAU. Just seeing them doing their thing is super special and cool to see."
Why Arizona's freshmen have been so effective
Peat had arguably the best debut of any player in the country this season. In Arizona's first game against reigning national champion Florida, Peat finished with 30 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the upset win over the Gators. Florida's frontcourt was a huge reason why it won the title last year, and almost all of that production returned.
It was hard to follow up on a historic performance like that, but Peat has been very effective next to Arizona big man Motiejus Krivas. Arizona's defense ranks No. 1 in effective field goal percentage allowed (44.8%) and is the only team in college basketball with a top-five defense and offense in adjusted efficiency, according to KenPom.
While Peat being a bully on both ends of the floor has done wonders for Arizona, the emergence of Burries throughout the season has been a major storyline that's raised Arizona's ceiling. Burries scored less than 10 points in four of his first five games, but then he flipped a switch.
Burries told CBS Sports that a turning point for him was back-to-back games against Auburn and Alabama in early December. In the win over the Crimson Tide, he scored (at the time) a career-high 28 points. Burries has 13 games with at least 20 points. He went from a very solid role player early in the season to arguably Arizona's best player and NBA Draft prospect.
"I started to find myself and my role on this team," Burries said. "Kinda just going up from there. Having ups and downs, but that's just part of basketball."
When Arizona faces Arkansas, it will be a reunion of sorts for all parties involved. Peat and Burries both played on Team West in the McDonald's All-American Game with Thomas. Acuff was on Team East in that game. From playing against each other on one of the biggest stages in high school basketball to now playing in a win-or-go-home game in the NCAA Tournament, Burries has seen the development of this class as a whole throughout the season.
Brayden Burries and Koa Peat were teammates with Meleek Thomas in the 2025 McDonald's All-American Game Getty Images "I feel like we have a great class," Burries said. "We have been playing against each other for a long time now. McDonald's camp, all these other camps. EYBL and stuff like that. Growing up and playing against each other a lot, you kinda see it at a young age. Just to see everybody evolve into their own person is cool."
Arizona is the fourth No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament history to have both of its top two scorers be freshmen. The others? 2009-10 Kentucky (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins), 2018-19 Duke (RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson) and last year's Duke team (Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel).
Those three teams didn't win a national title. Arizona could be the first.
YearTeamDuoCombined PPGCombined RPGCombined APGResult2009-10KentuckyWall/Cousins31.714.17.5Lost Elite Eight2018-19DukeBarrett/Williamson45.216.56.4Lost Elite Eight2024-25DukeFlagg/Knueppel33.611.56.9Lost Final Four2025-26ArizonaBurries/Peat29.710.35.2???Acuff and Thomas are reminiscent of another duo under Coach Cal
In Arkansas' first-round win over Hawaii last week, Acuff and Thomas became the first freshmen duo to finish with at least 20 points and five assists in an NCAA Tournament game. Before this season, there had been only three NCAA Tournament games in the Sweet 16 or later between teams that both had a freshman as their leading scorer. All three of those games featured a player coached by John Calipari at Kentucky.
Although it's not an exact comparison, there are similarities Acuff and Thomas have with a duo Calipari coached when he was at Kentucky: Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox. Those two helped Kentucky reach the Elite Eight before falling to North Carolina.
Ironically, it was Monk, not Fox, who averaged the most points per game that season. Monk and Acuff are the only freshmen under Calipari who have scored over 40 points in a game. Acuff dropped 49 against Alabama earlier this season, while Monk scored 47 points against UCLA in 2016 when he was at Kentucky.
Player duoTeamSeasonPPGRPGAPGFox/MonkKentucky2016-1736.56.56.9Acuff/ThomasArkansas2025-2638.33.98.9It's no secret that Calipari has been one of the best coaches at developing guards who are ready to play in the NBA. Still, what Acuff has done this season to become the best guard in college basketball and a likely top-10 pick has been one of Calipari's best development stories.
Acuff might go down as the best freshman guard to ever play for Calipari at the college level after this tournament run. Through the first two games of the NCAA Tournament, Acuff scored 60 points. That's the most of any freshman through the first two games in NCAA Tournament history, which surpassed the record (57 points) that was previously held by Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson and Cam Thomas.
"They have otherworldly confidence, both of 'em," Calipari said last weekend. "They could run for President and believe I could run this country, because that's how they think. I like that they're starting to talk in huddles about let's do this, let's do that. They're being empowered. ... And you know what's great, they're playing off of one another. And all they have done is helped each other. People are like, how are you going to get these two to play together? They're both good young people with good hearts, and they care about each other."
This year's Sweet 16 has a little bit of everything for college basketball fans. Sure, there is no true Cinderella this season, but the stage is set for eight incredible Sweet 16 matchups. Arkansas and Arizona might have as much intrigue as all of them, and it's because of all the freshmen talent that will be on display in Northern California later this week.
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