FAYETTEVILLE — Nick Smith, Arkansas’ high-profile freshman guard, will not play Monday when the 10th-ranked Razorbacks open the basketball season with a game against North Dakota State.
Smith is being withheld for precautionary “knee management,” according to a press release from the basketball team. A timetable for his return has not been determined.
Smith, 6-5 and 185 pounds, was the USA Today national high school basketball player of the year at North Little Rock this year. Multiple publications have tabbed him as the national freshman of the year this preseason, and he was voted by media and coaches to preseason All-SEC teams.