Eric Musselman shares what Nick Smith can bring against Alabama

Nick Smith is back and ready to lead Arkansas into March with a burning fire.

Injuries have hampered Smith throughout the season — he missed almost two months before returning two weeks ago, but he announced himself as officially back with a 26-point effort in a win against the Georgia Bulldogs earlier this week.

Of course, Smith missed the Razorbacks’ tough loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide earlier this season, one that Eric Musselman feels slipped out of his team’s grasp. Now, with Smith back and ready to roll for Saturday’s showdown with the SEC’s top team, Musselman has shared what his star can bring to the game against the Crimson Tide.

“Every game that Nick gets to play, I think he’s going to feel more and more comfortable,” started Musselman. “I probably left him out there tonight an extra four minutes in the second half late, because I wanted him to continue to get conditioning and rhythm and confidence. So again, I think he’s a player that’s going to — he changes our spacing. How people have to guard us.

“… I think anybody we play, it changes kind of who we are. From an offensive standpoint. For us, it’s — we defended them pretty well for most of the game, and they got hot down the stretch. They’re an explosive offensive team, so we’re going to have to defend. Then offensively, they’re such a great defensive team, we’re going to have to share the ball like we did tonight. The ball’s going to have eyes and find open people. And you can’t force things against their defense.”

The first go-round against Alabama, it was Mark Sears who did the Razorbacks in, as the Crimson Tide scorer amassed 26 points in leading Nate Oats’ team to victory. Perhaps Smith can neutralize his impact, and provide a similar scoring boost for Arkansas.

Time will tell, but Eric Musselman feels much better about Arkansas’ chances with Nick Smith than without him.