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Arkansas sustained another injury in Wednesday’s loss at No. 9 Tennessee.
After playing five minutes in the first half, freshman KK Robinson did not see the floor in the second half of the Razorbacks’ 79-74 loss to the Volunteers because of a foot injury, head coach Eric Musselman said.
“KK came to me at halftime and said he couldn’t go,” Musselman said. “His foot was bothering him. … He said it’s been bothering him a little bit since the Red-White game. We’ll have the training staff get with him and figure out what it is.”
Although he didn’t take a shot, Robinson had a very active 4 minutes and 52 seconds of playing time, which was more than he had received in the first two SEC games combined.
He pulled down two rebounds, dished out an assist, committed a turnover and committed a pair of personal fouls. While he was on the floor, Arkansas’ lead grew from two to five, giving Robinson a team-high plus-3.
Wednesday night also marked the second straight game the Razorbacks were without starting forward Justin Smith. The graduate transfer from Indiana had ankle surgery Friday that will keep him out 3-6 weeks.
The SEC Network broadcast indicated the injury might not cause him to miss quite that much time, but Musselman said afterward that they still don’t have a firm timeline.
“His surgery went well, but it’s really too early for us to tell what the timeline is going to be,” Musselman said. “He’s still got to get on the underwater treadmill and he’s still in a boot.”
That said, everyone has been encouraged by Smith’s progress through the first few days and the staff is optimistic that he will be back this season.
“I think the doctors and training staff is really happy thus far with the lack of swelling maybe and the lack of pain, but…there’s so many steps we need to go through,” Musselman said. “But certainly when they went into the surgery, it was good news rather than maybe what it could have been I guess.”
Here are a few more notes and tidbits from Arkansas’ loss to No. 9 Tennessee…
Moody Struggles
In his 11th career game, star freshman Moses Moody was finally held under 10 points Wednesday night.
The Volunteers held the Little Rock native to just 6 points on 1 of 8 shooting, including 1 of 4 from beyond the arc. Half of his points came at the charity stripe, as he was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three free throws.
It was an uncharacteristic performance for a guy who came into the game averaging a team-high 16.8 points on 49.5 percent shooting overall and 40.5 percent shooting from deep, and Musselman credited Tennessee’s stellar defense for limiting him.
“With Moses, it’s just a matter of getting clean looks,” Musselman said. “We’re playing against long guys that are athletic and there’s going to be an adjustment once we get into league play. We have great confidence in Moses, but we as a group, when you struggle, you’ve got to cut hard, you’ve got to really work to get open across the board.”
