Nick Smith ruled out for Arkansas vs Missouri, will see specialist for knee injury

Arkansas will again be without freshman Nick Smith Wednesday night against Missouri, the team announced. He’s seeing a specialist for his knee injury.

Smith won’t be on the bench for the game in Fayetteville Wednesday as he receives further evaluation on the injury, which has lingered most of the season. He was recently ruled out “indefinitely” due to injury management.

In five games this season — including four starts — Smith has averaged 12.8 points per game, which sits second on the Arkansas roster.

Smith was one of the key pieces of Arkansas’ recruiting class and is already generating some buzz in NBA Draft circles. He was a five-star recruit and was the No. 3 player in the nation from the 2022 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Additionally, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony listed him as the No. 4 overall pick in his latest two-round mock draft last week.

Eric Musselman identifies the keys to victory for Arkansas against Missouri

Arkansas will face an unexpectedly big test tonight as Missouri, which now is ranked in the Top-25, will come into Bud Walton Arena at 12-1. If Eric Musselman’s young Razorbacks are going to cool off the Tigers, he says there are a couple of things they’ll need to do on Tuesday night.

Musselman shared some of his keys during his press conference on Monday. He said that, first and foremost, Arkansas is going to have to take care of the ball. He meant that from a turnover standpoint as well as a shot selection standpoint when they’re on offense.

“I think, obviously, they create a lot of turnovers. And those turnovers are live ball ones where you can get out in transition. (It’s) much like how our defense tries to ignite some offense,” Musselman said. “We can’t have any turnover shots, meaning ill-advised shots. We’ve got to have high-quality shots. They thrive off turnover shots. They jump in passing lanes and create disruption with their defense. And that allows for the offensive numbers that you see.”