NCAAB: James injury affects odds
The loss of point guard Dominic James is a huge blow to Marquette as they play at the Louisville Cardinals on Sunday.
James’ season and college career is over after he suffered a broken foot in a home game against Connecticut on Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles (23-5, 12-3 Big East) lost 93-82, which was their only home loss of the year.
Marquette will try to recover emotionally and physically when they play at the Louisville Cardinals on Sunday.This game will be broadcast on CBS beginning at noon ET.
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The loss of James was a huge blow because this already wasn’t a deep team. Marquette gets almost all of its scoring from James, guards Jerel McNeal and Wes Matthews, and forward Lazar Hayward.
Junior guard Maurice Acker will now move into the starting lineup, but he has only averaged 2.2 PPG in just 12.5 minutes. James was averaging 11.4 PPG and they could have a lot of trouble on the offensive end now.
Louisville is 22-5 overall and 13-2 in the Big East. The Cardinals trailed Connecticut by just a half game in the conference heading into the weekend and they must win to keep pace.
Coach Rick Pitino’s squad has been playing well at the right time, going 4-0 straight-up and ATS in their last four games. Those four games weren’t against the upper echelon of the conference, but forward Earl Clark has been playing better and he must continue to do so if they hope to finish strong down the stretch.
For the season, the Cardinals are 6-1 at home straight-up and 5-2 ATS in-conference. Marquette, on the other hand, is 5-2 straight-up and 4-3 ATS on the road in-conference.
Marquette has also had an easy Big East schedule on the road with Villanova being the toughest so far. Villanova won that game 102-84 as five-point favorites and the Golden Eagles must put forth a much better effort this time around.
The Cardinals can be exploited at times at the center position as they start freshman Samardo Samuels. However, Marquette doesn’t have an inside presence to take advantage.
All in all, this looks like a very tough spot for Marquette given the emotional loss of James and what he meant to the team on the court.
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