Arkansas star freshman Nick Smith Jr. suited up to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks (17-8, 6-6) for just the sixth time this season and the first time since Dec. 17 during Saturday's 70-64 loss to Mississippi State.
The McDonald's All-American out of North Little Rock High School missed 14 straight games due to right knee management, but he played under no minutes restriction against the Bulldogs on Saturday, according to head coach Eric Musselman.
Smith scored five points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field. He knocked down a mid-range jumper shortly after his first check in of the second half and he drained a three with 13 seconds left in the game — the Hogs' last bucket of the game.
Along with his five points, Smith had one rebound, one assist and he tied for a team-best plus-3 in his 17 minutes played.
After being held out for such a long period of time, an adjustment period was expected for Smith and the rest of the usual lineup. Fellow five-star freshman Anthony Black said he liked what he saw from Smith Saturday.
"I think he did a good job with his minutes," Black said. "He played really hard on defense. With me, what you do on offense, as long as you play hard on defense and just take pride in it, I can live with you maybe missing some shots or doing something. It wasn’t bad for his first time out. We’re happy to have him back. We’ve got to start working him back in now."
Musselman said integrating Smith into the lineup is going to be a challenge for the staff/team moving forward.
"That's a dilemma that we have to try to figure out and solve trying to integrate him in," Musselman said. "I thought he played fine. But we have to play better as a team for sure."
According to KenPom, Smith had an offensive rating of 78%, which was the third worst mark of any Arkansas player on Saturday.
Smith's appearance came after Musselman revealed Wednesday that Smith had started to practice with the team and he was hopeful that Smith could play for the Hogs soon.
"Nick, he has practiced the last few days with us," Musselman said. "Obviously he did not go on the road trip (to Kentucky) so he could continue to stay back here and work on his conditioning. We're optimistic and hopeful that Nick will be able to play sometime here in the near future."
The reality of Smith playing against the Bulldogs became apparent when rumors started swirling late in the week that he went on an Instagram live video with other players and said he was going play against the Bulldogs. No recording was posted of the video and the team didn't issue an official statement, but reputable reports came out Friday and Saturday that Smith would be available for the Hogs.
Smith hasn't seen the court since exiting in the second half of the Dec. 17 game against Bradley in North Little Rock. Musselman said on Jan. 5 that the team was anticipating Smith to miss the rest of January and he was seeing a specialist in Los Angeles at that point.
Smith has been bothered by the knee injury ever since the end of the team's European tour over the summer. He missed the first six games of the year to rehab the knee before he made his season debut on Nov. 28 against Troy, who he played just five minutes against.
During the three-game stretch where Smith was not limited, he looked like the highly-touted five-star prospect that Hog fans raved over. The 6-foot-5-inch guard averaged 19.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and three assists per contest. He scored a season-high 22 points and played 39 minutes in a win over UNC Greensboro on Dec. 6.
ESPN's latest NBA mock draft has Smith projected to go No. 6 overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Arkansas will travel to Texas A&M on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. CT tipoff against the Aggies. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
