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Published Feb 17, 2021
Hoops Notebook: Smith's encore, Williams' defense, more
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Andrew Hutchinson  •  HawgBeat
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Coming off a dominant performance in an upset win at Missouri, Justin Smith arguably had an even better encore Tuesday night.

The graduate transfer from Indiana stuffed the box score with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists, five steals and two blocks in No. 24 Arkansas’ 75-64 win over Florida inside Bud Walton Arena.

It has been a while since an SEC player turned in an all-around performance quite like that. In fact, the last time someone within the conference reached those totals was on Dec. 2, 2015, when LSU’s Ben Simmons did it against North Florida.

“I thought late he had a huge shot in front of their bench, off a little Barkley-esque back-you-down move, over his left shoulder with a right hook,” Florida coach Mike White said. “I think he is one of the better cutters in our league.

“He was really efficient tonight. He and (Connor) Vanover have really good chemistry. He is a good cutter regardless of who has the ball in his hands, but Vanover does a great job of finding him. And Muss did a great job late of getting him the ball in spots. He has a nice pace to his game, is big and strong, and played within himself at times. He is a good player.”

Not including the Alabama game, when he returned just two weeks after ankle surgery, Smith has averaged 12.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals while playing excellent defense and providing Arkansas with an inside presence.

The last two games, though, are “definitely” some of the best games Smith has played since joining the Razorbacks, he said, despite still not being completely back to his pre-injury level.

“I probably won't ever get back to 100 percent until the offseason,” Smith said. “Matt, our trainer, (is) just trying to get me as close to 100 percent as I possibly can, whether that be 90 percent, 95, whatever. It's just been a lot of hard work, a lot of late nights in the training room and also finding time to get my skill work in.”

Here are a few other tidbits and stats from Arkansas’ win over Florida…

Defending Castleton

It won’t necessarily show up in the box score, but Jaylin Williams’ defense on Florida’s Colin Castleton played a key role in Tuesday’s win.

The Razorbacks’ freshman seemed to frustrate the 6-foot-11 redshirt junior several times during the final 4 minutes and 40 seconds, when the Gators’ offense stalled out and they missed their last six shots.

“He made it difficult for Colin Castleton to catch the ball in his scoring area,” Musselman said. “We wanted him to try to catch the ball out on the floor a little bit or two steps off the post. I thought he did a good job dislodging him and kind of crab-walking him off of his spots.”

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