FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ coaches, players and fans welcomed star sophomore shooting guard Isaiah Joe back to the court on Saturday afternoon, and it was not a moment too soon.
Joe, whose knee surgery forced him to miss each contest during the team’s five-game losing streak, scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Razorbacks (17-10, 5-9 SEC) over Missouri 78-68 at Bud Walton Arena.
“It was good being back,” Joe said after playing over 37 minutes. “I think they were going to monitor my minutes, but once I got in the flow of the game I felt great out there. It just felt good to be back out there with my brothers, my teammates.”
Although the actual crowd was more likely around 14,000 than the announced figure of 19,200, it did roar with approval when Joe was announced as a starter.
“I thought he was great,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “We're a whole different team with him. Look, we all know it's been a struggle without him for a variety of reasons. We just can't afford a guy like Isaiah not to be in our lineup. I thought he was awesome.”
The decision to let Joe, averaging 16.2 points per game, play was made Saturday morning by the Arkansas training and medical staff.
“It is a process and we have to do rehab, I have to get game reps in, got to go live in practice and we did, and over the course of time we were able to come to a conclusion that I was ready,” Joe said. “So it is a long process. I didn’t just wake up this morning and say, ‘I’m good.’
“…It feels good. We got ready and I felt like I was able to go out there and produce, and that’s what we did.”
Joe was 6-of-12 from the field, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range, while fellow sophomore guard Desi Sills scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, going 6 of 8 from the field and 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
Arkansas had five players in double figures with Columbia, Mo., native Jimmy Whitt adding 14 points, Mason Jones 12 and Adrio Bailey 11 on a day when the Razorbacks were 25-of-53 shooting overall, 12-of-25 from 3-point range and 16-of-20 at the free throw line.
“He opens up 3-balls for other people as well just being out there,” Musselman said of Joe. “I thought he moved really well. I thought he got a little bit winded at certain stretches. But look, we won a game at home in double digits and got one of the best players back in uniform tonight in the conference.
“Now we've got to get ready for Tennessee (on Wednesday), and we know what happened last time we played them (a 82-61 loss in Knoxville on Feb. 11).”
Joe missed the Razorbacks’ first game with Missouri on Feb. 8 when the Tigers downed the Razorbacks 83-79 in overtime.
Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin was quick to praise Joe after the rematch.
“He's a talented player,” Martin said. “He's gifted. Any time you've been out that long and can shoot the ball like that, again, he shot it like that last year. It just shows the level of confidence. It's impressive. That last 3 he made was ... some coaches might say, 'Eh.' That's confidence. That's a legit stroke, probably the best in America.”
Martin thinks Joe will play basketball for a long time.
“He's an all-league guy,” Martin said. “He's a guy when it's all said and done that will play for 15 years, whenever that is. Not many guys can shoot the ball like that. He can stroke it.”
Kobe Brown had 17 points and Xavier Pinson and Dru Smith 15 each for Missouri (13-14, 5-9).
Pinson lauded the effort of Joe, who did not play in the earlier contest at Missouri.
“He’s an incredible player, incredible shooter,” Pinson said. “I mean, we found out he was playing kind of late, but we still knew who he is … He showed us who he was and who he still is. He’s a great player.”
Musselman was also impressed with Joe’s defense during the game.
“…He took a charge,” Musselman said. “We haven’t taken a charge since the eighth grade picnic, since he’s been out. We took a charge and Isaiah took it. We missed some, too. But he did a great job. He’s just so long. He’s got good lateral foot speed, he can keep guys in front of him, then he can challenge shots with his length.”
Jones was just 2-of-9 from the field, but 7-of-8 from the free throw line and tied Corliss Williamson’s school record of 109 free throws against SEC foes.
He also moved within five points of becoming a 1,000-point career scorer.
Joe was happy to get back and give Jones and his teammates some help.
“It was tough being on the sideline, but I still had faith in my team the whole time I was on the sideline,” Joe said. “I was on the sideline being a great cheerleader, a great coach. I was engaged in the game, engaged in timeouts and just waiting for my time to come back.
“We understood the process it was going to take, so we just had to wait it out.”
Arkansas was 15-5 when Joe was shut down and had surgery and squarely in the NCAA Tournament projections by various bracketologists.
Most of those same experts had the Razorbacks on the outside looking in Saturday.
Arkansas has four regular season games left with a home game against Tennessee (15-12, 7-7) on Wednesday, a road test at Georgia (13-3, 3-10) on Saturday, a home game against LSU (18-8, 9-4) and the regular season finale at Texas A&M (14-12, 8-6).
Georgia was set to visit Vanderbilt and LSU visits South Carolina in Saturday evening games.
“Better late than never,” Joe said of getting off the snide. “We got a win tonight, so we have just got to continue to win. We are in a hole right now, but can definitely dig ourselves out.
"We have to come ready to play and take it one game at a time.”