FAYETTEVILLE — Marshawn Powell had a beard and had stitches over his left eye when he met with reporters before Arkansas’ basketball practice Thursday. He also wore a big smile.
Did Powell grow the beard in an attempt to look like NBA star James Harden of the Oklahoma City Thunder?
“Man, I really don’t know,” he said laughing.
The stitches resulted from an accidental Hunter Mickelson elbow during practice a few days ago.
“I was going up for a layup and he just came across the lane,” Powell said. “He caught me pretty decent.”
Powell’s smile was because he is about to get back on the court against another team for the first time in nine months when the Razorbacks open their tour of Italy Sunday by playing Amici del Campetto in Como.
Powell, a 6-7 redshirt junior forward, hasn’t played in a competitive game since Nov. 16, 2011, when he had 20 points and 7 rebounds in 24 minutes to lead Arkansas to a 91-68 victory over Oakland (Mich.) University at Walton Arena. Three days later, he tore ligaments in his right knee and was lost for the rest of the season after averaging 19.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in Arkansas’ 2-0 start.
“It’s just been totally practice-structured for me since I’ve been back,” Powell said. “It’s going to be nice to see where I’m at and what I can do.”
Powell was asked if he’s looking forward to dunking on Italian players.
“Dunking? I don’t know,” he said. “Power layup probably.”
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson estimated that on a scale of 1 to 10 conditioning wise, Powell is about a 5 right now, but Anderson said he’s seen enough to let Powell play at least limited minutes in the four exhibition games.
“He’s been involved in all the workouts,” Anderson said. “So far, so good. We’ll still kind of trying to gauge how much time he’ll play. He’ll play, but how much remains to be seen. ”
Powell agreed with Anderson’s assessment of his conditioning and said getting back into top shape isn’t easy. The team’s first practice July 31 for the Italian tour was especially tough.
“I couldn’t even make it past half-court, for real, I so was tired,” Powell said. “It was difficult for the first couple of days, but it’s getting a little bit better day by day.”
Powell said his knee has been “just a little bit sore,” but that his recovery continues to move forward.
“I’m happy, man” Powell said. “No complaints.”
Anderson said it’s to be expected that Powell gets fatigued quickly and is having to work his way back into shape.
“It’s a steady process,” Anderson said. “He’s not where he is going to be, but I think the beauty of it is he’s out there now. That does a lot for the psyche, a lot from the mental standpoint, when you go through something he has gone through and you work and work physically to get back.”
Having Powell practicing also is good for the Razorbacks’ psyche.
“It makes everybody feel great,” said Mickelson, a sophomore forward. “We kind of feel like a complete team, like we have everybody here.
“He’s playing hard, which makes everybody else play hard. It’s nice just having another body out there, and then a guy that’s as skilled as he is pushing everybody is real good to have.”
Sophomore All-SEC guard BJ Young said Powell has been a vocal leader in practice.
“His skill set is still there,” Young said. “He’s still playing really good. It’s just great to have another guy who has been around the Razorbacks and been around the SEC and knows what to tell the other guys and help them along.”
Powell said he’s at 238 pounds after getting down to 220 last season before his injury.
“I’m going to get back down there eventually as long as I keep coming back in here and working,” he said.
Sports, Pages 17 on 08/10/2012