Eric Musselman provides inside look at what Arkansas staff is evaluating with Nick Smith injury

Eric Musselman has himself a quandary with Arkansas guard Nick Smith, who has recently returned from a knee injury. His minutes played have fluctuated since he has returned three games ago, ranging from four to 32 minutes.

After Saturday’s win over Florida, Musselman discussed how they are approaching ramping Smith back up to full strength.

“As a coaching staff, we try to be prepared,” Musselman said. “We try to have a reason for everything. We don’t just roll the dice out on lineups and and substitution patterns. We have a lot of noncontact practices for eight years now. We have catapult numbers, where you can distinguish their energy, the jumps they have, how many miles they go in practice, and that all those numbers go into effect on all this stuff. How we sub.”

Smith played 32 minutes and scored 10 points in the game, albeit on 4 of 12 shooting. He also added two steals.

It was his most points in a game since Dec. 10, 2022 versus Oklahoma.

“We knew when Nick came back, there’s not a high school player, there’s not a college player, there’s not an NBA player — there’s there’s a reason Major League Baseball, when guys are out extended periods of time, send them down to the minor leagues to get the rhythm and their timing,” Musselman said. “We certainly felt with a basketball team and a program that does not go live and hasn’t gone live. It’s because we want to be fresh in March. So it’s hard for Nick to play three-on-three post practice and get rhythm. So really happy that he got the minutes that he got tonight. Happy how his teammates responded with him. He gives us a little bit of an edge. He’s competitive, and he’s verbal.I think that helps us tremendously.”

Nick Smith has just returned to action from his injury

After the Florida game was not the first time Musselman talked about what he is thinking about regarding Smith’s minutes. Musselman also discussed the issues Smith’s return has on the team after playing Mississippi State.

“(Smith’s minutes are) a dilemma that we have to try to figure out and solve,” Musselman said postgame. “I thought he played fine. But we have to play better as a team for sure.”

Smith has played in eight games all season and is averaging 21.4 minutes per game and 9.9 points per contest on 36.0% shooting.

Smith was the No. 3 player in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.