HawgBeat – How Nick Smith Jr. fared for Arkansas in return

Arkansas star freshman Nick Smith Jr. suited as much as play for the Arkansas Razorbacks (17-8, 6-6) for simply the sixth time this season and the primary time since Dec. 17 throughout Saturday’s 70-64 loss to Mississippi State.

The McDonald’s All-American out of North Little Rock Excessive College missed 14 straight video games resulting from proper knee administration, however he performed underneath no minutes restriction in opposition to the Bulldogs on Saturday, in accordance with head coach Eric Musselman.

Smith scored 5 factors on 2-of-7 taking pictures from the sphere. He knocked down a mid-range jumper shortly after his first examine in of the second half and he drained a 3 with 13 seconds left within the sport — the Hogs’ final bucket of the sport.

Alongside along with his 5 factors, Smith had one rebound, one help and he tied for a team-best plus-3 in his 17 minutes performed.

After being held out for such a protracted time period, an adjustment interval was anticipated for Smith and the remainder of the standard lineup. Fellow five-star freshman Anthony Black mentioned he preferred what he noticed from Smith Saturday.

“I believe he did an excellent job along with his minutes,” Black mentioned. “He performed actually exhausting on protection. With me, what you do on offense, so long as you play exhausting on protection and simply take delight in it, I can stay with you possibly lacking some photographs or doing one thing. It wasn’t unhealthy for his first outing. We’re joyful to have him again. We’ve received to begin working him again in now.”

Musselman mentioned integrating Smith into the lineup goes to be a problem for the workers/crew transferring ahead.

“That is a dilemma that we’ve to strive to determine and remedy attempting to combine him in,” Musselman mentioned. “I assumed he performed effective. However we’ve to play higher as a crew for certain.”

In response to KenPom, Smith had an offensive ranking of 78%, which was the third worst mark of any Arkansas participant on Saturday.

Smith’s look got here after Musselman revealed Wednesday that Smith had began to observe with the crew and he was hopeful that Smith might play for the Hogs quickly.

“Nick, he has practiced the previous few days with us,” Musselman mentioned. “Clearly he didn’t go on the street journey (to Kentucky) so he might proceed to remain again right here and work on his conditioning. We’re optimistic and hopeful that Nick will be capable to play someday right here within the close to future.”

The fact of Smith enjoying in opposition to the Bulldogs grew to become obvious when rumors began swirling late within the week that he went on an Instagram stay video with different gamers and mentioned he was going play in opposition to the Bulldogs. No recording was posted of the video and the crew did not difficulty an official assertion, however respected studies got here out Friday and Saturday that Smith could be out there for the Hogs.

Smith hasn’t seen the court docket since exiting within the second half of the Dec. 17 sport in opposition to Bradley in North Little Rock. Musselman mentioned on Jan. 5 that the crew was anticipating Smith to overlook the remainder of January and he was seeing a specialist in Los Angeles at that time.

Smith has been bothered by the knee damage ever because the finish of the crew’s European tour over the summer season. He missed the primary six video games of the 12 months to rehab the knee earlier than he made his season debut on Nov. 28 in opposition to Troy, who he performed simply 5 minutes in opposition to.

Through the three-game stretch the place Smith was not restricted, he appeared just like the highly-touted five-star prospect that Hog followers raved over. The 6-foot-5-inch guard averaged 19.7 factors, 2.3 rebounds and three assists per contest. He scored a season-high 22 factors and performed 39 minutes in a win over UNC Greensboro on Dec. 6.

ESPN’s newest NBA mock draft has Smith projected to go No. 6 total to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.

Arkansas will journey to Texas A&M on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. CT tipoff in opposition to the Aggies. The sport might be broadcast on ESPN2.