Hoops Notebook: Smith returns, Moody's big game, more

Arkansas received an unexpected bit of good news Saturday when Justin Smith returned to action just 15 days after having ankle surgery.

The graduate transfer from Indiana was expected to miss 3-6 weeks, but head coach Eric Musselman revealed during his interview with Chuck Barrett on the radio broadcast’s pregame show that he’d be available to play against Alabama.

Not only was he available, but Smith was back in the starting lineup and actually played 18 minutes in the Razorbacks’ 90-59 blowout loss to the Crimson Tide. That was within the range of 15-20 minutes that Musselman and his staff planned for him.

He finished the game with five points on 2 of 4 shooting, one rebound, one assist, one steal and three turnovers.

“He kind of played like we expected he would,” Musselman said. “Obviously because of the limited amount of time between games, we weren’t going to really have any time where he could go live, but I thought it was good to have him back. I thought he did a good job of moving the basketball and trying to play the right way.”

Here are a few other notes and tidbits from the Razorbacks’ blowout loss in Tuscaloosa…

Moody Emerges

The lone bright spot for Arkansas on Saturday was the play of stud freshman Moses Moody. The Little Rock native scored a career-high 28 points and was a rebound shy of his second career double-double.

Moody appeared to be the only player who came out ready to play against Alabama, as he scored 14 of the Razorbacks’ first 15 points. He added another 14 points after halftime.