Marquette has arguably the best backcourt in college basketball with Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews. Each player is a talented guard that defends well, and is capable of hitting threes and driving to the basket. Add in the fact that all three are seniors that have played together for their entire career, and you will not find a backcourt in the country that can match that combination of talent and experience.What Marquette does not have at the guard spot, though, is depth. That is now a major problem as point guard Dominic James went down very early in Wednesday's game against UConn with a left foot injury. After the half, the report came out that James suffered a fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his left foot. Shortly after the game, Marquette coach Buzz Williams announced that James would get surgery immediately. The consequences of this, is that James season and career at Marquette are now over.
This is a big blow for Marquette. James leads the teams in assists with 5.3 per game and is the fourth-leading scorer, to say nothing of being a senior leader.
They really only give Maurice Acker and Jimmy Butler serious minutes at the guard spots. Junior David Cubillan has seen his minutes fall from over 21 per game as a freshman down to a mere nine per game. In Big East play, he has not played more than nine minutes in a game and has three DNPs. As Cublilan's minutes have diminished, so has his offensive productivity. His shooting percentage has fallen off a cliff.
Marquette now goes from fighting to win the Big East, and a possible two or three seed looking for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, to a very flawed team. A huge loss and disappointment to a season that looked like it could be something special.
