Eric Musselman explains allowing Davonte Davis' return to Arkansas' roster

Arkansas G Davonte Davis spent the past week or so away from the program in the midst of conference play. Now, with an off day built into this week, the senior guard has rejoined the roster and his integrating himself back into the Razorbacks’ day-to-day work.

Eric Musselman started his press conference on Friday by addressing Davis’ return and how that had gone this week. He said that the process started with a meeting and continued with conversations about how that would look over a couple of steps.

“I mean you sit down and you talk to the player,” said Musselman. “You have a meeting and you discuss how he’s going to come back, how that process is going to work. What day he is going to come back practice. What, physically, after being away for a little bit are you going to do? Like, how much? How little?”

“That was, basically, what the conversation was,” Musselman explained.

After that, though, Musselman said it has been a quality week with Davis back in the fold. Everyone has responded well to it and Davis has stepped back in from a competition standpoint where he hasn’t missed a beat.

“We’re excited to have Devo back. I think he’s excited,” said Musselman.

“He has been working hard. He has had a great week of practice,” Musselman said. “I think, from a conditioning standpoint? And we talked yesterday about his conditioning. He feels like he’s back to where he was from a conditioning standpoint.”

Davis has played in 121 games, including 80 starts, for the ‘Hogs over the past four years. In that time, he has averaged 8.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.1 steals. In his 19 games this year, Davis is posting a career-low of 6.3 points, a team-high of 2.1 assists, and four rebounds in 29 minutes.

However, after starting all but one game to that point, Davis was absent from Arkansas’ matchup with Kentucky on January 27th. The program announced before the primetime game that he had stepped away from the team. Following the loss, Musselman declined to comment on the matter at that time.

Then, nine days later, the news of Davis’ return came this week after missing two games. With that said, his status for their game against Georgia tomorrow, or at least how much that he’ll play, remains to be seen.

Davis played a significant part on three teams that made the Sweet 16 in each of the last three campaigns. That experience alone makes this return an important one for Arkansas as they enter the back half of league play.

“He has been a part of four really good years and, certainly, we’re looking forward to having him back,” said Musselman.