In the lane

— Happy return for A.J.

A.J. Walton grinned throughout his postgame session with the media, more out of relief than giddiness.

The freshman guard from Little Rock Hall did his job Wednesday night in Baylor’s 70-47 victory over Arkansas at North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena, coming off the bench to hit two threepointers and score six points.

Walton could finally relax, but he was more than a little uptight when he woke up in his home city Wednesday morning.

“At the hotel, I was hyper,” Walton said. “I couldn’t wait to play.”

Walton battled butterflies for much of the afternoon before getting some encouraging words from the player he’s being groomed to replace, senior point guard Tweety Carter.

“Like a big brother, he just took me under his wing,” Walton said. “He said, ‘Calm down, just play your game and you’ll do good.’ ”

Walton led Little Rock Hall to two Class 6A state championship game appearances before heading to Baylor.

Happy return

Former Razorbacks Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman and U.S. Reed were honored at halftime Wednesday and spent an hour prior to the game signing autographs for fans at Verizon Arena.

Thurman and Williamson led Arkansas to the 1994 national championship and are both starting coaching careers in Little Rock.

Thurman is assisting at Episcopal Collegiate, while Williamson is in his second year as coach at Arkansas Baptist College.

Reed, a Pine Bluff native, played on Arkansas’ 1978 Final Four team and was part of three Southwest Conference Tournament championship teams.

Waiting on Mike

Michael Washington has done a lot of sitting and a lot of standing, but not much playing.

The senior forward and Arkansas’ third-leading scorer played only 19 minutes of the Razorbacks’ overtime victory Dec. 22 and didn’t get into Wednesday’s game until the 16:49 mark in the second half.

Foul trouble had Washington on the bench against Missouri State, but continuing back trouble kept Washington off to the side Wednesday. Washington spent most of the first half standing and stretching in an effort to get loose.

Washington played nine minutes Wednesday and missed both his shot attempts.

“When we got him on the bus to come down here, he thought he could play,” Razorbacks Coach John Pelphrey said. “By the time we got down here, he never loosened up. He’s been rehabbing it for close to 48 hours now.”Almost full house

Attendance may be spotty at Fayetteville’s Walton Arena, but Arkansas managed a solid turnout in North Little Rock.

Wednesday’s attendance of 11,162 was down from the 15,687 that saw the Razorbacks play North Texas last year, but up from the 10,835 that watched Arkansas against Appalachian State in 2007.

Those two games, as well as 2006’s game with Texas Tech, landed on Saturdays and were played in the afternoon.

Making inroads

A.J. Walton’s return to Arkansas in a Baylor uniform may have been the main subplot Wednesday, but he’s hardly the first state prospect to be courted by Bears Coach Scott Drew.

Baylor was one of the schools that offered a scholarship to Junction City forward James Anderson, and the Bears later extended an offer to Fayetteville point guard Fred Gulley.

Anderson and Gulley ended up signing with Oklahoma State.

Sports, Pages 20 on 12/31/2009