FAYETTEVILLE — JD Notae will be a game-time decision for Arkansas’ game against Vanderbilt, head coach Eric Musselman announced Monday.
The senior guard missed the Razorbacks’ SEC opener against Mississippi State last week because of an illness. Musselman said the team learned of his absence when the team returned following a brief break for Christmas.
About a week later, Notae was able to rejoin the team for some shooting on Friday and then took limited practice reps Saturday. Whether or not he plays Tuesday night will depend on how he feels after shoot around.
“I don’t think that it’ll be a restriction type,” Musselman said. “I think it’ll just be, hey, has he gotten enough reps where our trainer feels comfortable and JD feels comfortable? I think if that’s the case, he’ll play. If they feel that he’s not, then he just won’t play.”
Notae is Arkansas’ leading scorer at 18.0 points per game, which also ranks second in the SEC. He started all but one of the Razorbacks’ first 12 games of the season and averages a team-high 34.4 minutes.
On top of what he brings offensively, Notae is one of Arkansas’ top defenders. In fact, he leads the conference with 2.7 steals per game. If he’s available to play, he - along with Davonte Davis and others - will likely be asked to help slow down Vanderbilt’s Scotty Pippen Jr., the SEC’s leading scorer.
“He's doing pretty good from what we've seen,” Davis said. “He's been in and out, so we know that he's got to get back into the rhythm of the game play and things like that, but he'll help us out a lot. … I think he's going to help us out a lot from offensive-wise and on the defensive end, just impacting.”
The Razorbacks were also without forward Kamani Johnson against Mississippi State.
Coming off his best game at his new school, in which he had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks against Elon, the Little Rock transfer was suspended indefinitely for undisclosed reasons.
Musselman said he’s been practicing the last couple of days and could return as early as Tuesday night against Vanderbilt.
"Kamani could be back with us,” Musselman said. “He's on a day-by-day situation. I guess I'll leave it at that."
Tip off against the Commodores is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
