ARLINGTON, Texas – Darius Burford, a 6-0 guard who spent the past two seasons at Illinois State, will join Head Coach KT Turner and the UT Arlington men's basketball program for the 2024-25 season.
 
During his two seasons for the Redbirds, Burford appeared in 42 games, making 37 starts while averaging 13.5 points per game over his two seasons. During the 2023-24 season, Burford made 20 starts and averaged a team-high 12.8 points per contest. He shot .431 from the field while shooting .781 from the charity stripe for the year. Burford finished with 53 total rebounds, 32 assists, 23 steals and 2 blocks for the season. 
 
During his first season with the Redbirds, Burford played in 31 games with 28 starts. He scored in double-figures 23 times during the season, with five games of 20+ points which was the 13th-most in the Missouri Valley Conference. He averaged a team-best 12.9 points per game, while pulling down 3.7 rebounds per game and dishing out 2.5 assists per contest. His scoring averaged ranked 14th in the MVC, while his field goal percentage (.480) was 8th. and made .816 percent of his free throws during the year, which was the seventh-best total in the MVC. His .480 field goal percentage for the season was the 134th-best field goal percentage in the country during the season, and the 4th best in the country among players 6-0 and shorter based on the NCAA statistical minimums for the season. He twice scored 23 points in a game - his season-high - against both Valparaiso on January 21 and at Indiana State on February 18.
 
Before his time at Illinois State, Burford spent two seasons at Elon where he was named to the third-team All-Colonial Athletic Association in 2022 as well as being named the CAA Player of the Week on two separate occasions during the season. He led the team in scoring, assists, and steals, averaging 13.4 points per game with 97 assists and 47 steals. Both his assist average and steals per game average were eighth best in the CAA, his scoring average was ninth best in the CAA, while his field goal percentage of .453 percent was 3rd best among qualifiers.  He also had the sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference (1.28). 
 
As a freshman, Burford was named to the CAA All-Rookie Team after he averaged 8.9 points per game with 25 assists and a team-high 27 steals in 19 games on the season with 11 starts. He scored in double-figures seven times, including scoring a season-high 27 points against William & Mary, one of two 20-point scoring efforts on the season. He twice earned CAA Rookie of the Week honors during his freshman season and ranked sixth in the CAA in steals per game with 1.4.
 
A native of Bolingbrook, Illinois, Burford attended Bolingbrook High School where he was a top-20 player in Illinois' 2020 class by the Hoops Report and Prep Hoops Illinois. He helped lead Bolingbrook to Conference, Regional, and Sectional titles and was named First Team All-Tournament at both the Decatur Turkey Tournament and the Kingdom of the Sun Holiday Classic in 2018. He was an IBCA All-State honoree as a junior.
 
Burford joins Brody Robinson, Diante Smith, Jaden Wells, Jarren Cook, Raysean Seamster and Cameron Jackson as signees for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
 

 
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