Fourteen Big East head coaches may have taken a sigh of relief when Marquette senior point guard Dominic James went down for the season with a broken bone in his left foot on Feb. 25 in a loss to Connecticut.

But Jim Boeheim didn’t. The Syracuse head coach knows that when his team travels to face Marquette Saturday (2 p.m., Time Warner 26), a James-less Golden Eagles team could be even more potent than a team with its starting point guard, who averaged 11.4 points per game and led the team in assists.

That’s because in two games against Syracuse over the last two seasons, James is a combined 6-for-24 from the field – 3-for-12 in each game – and Syracuse won both contests.

‘For us, they’re harder,’ Boeheim said of facing a Marquette team without James. ‘They put a better shooter in the lineup.

‘He’s had two bad shooting games against us. The other guys will take shots. As good as he is, the other guys that are better shooters are going to shoot the shots now and that will make it difficult for us.’

Marquette has played two games since James’ injury: a four-point loss at No. 6 Louisville Saturday, and a 15-point loss at No. 3 Pittsburgh, where it hung with the Panthers for much of the game. That proves the team can function without their star point guard.

‘Dominic James is a great player,’ SU forward Paul Harris said. ‘But if you look over the history of him playing us, I think coach said he was 4-for-28. So honestly, he didn’t do that much to us.’

The Golden Eagles have been one of the surprise teams in the Big East this year, under first-year head coach Buzz Williams. Marquette is currently 23-7 on the year (12-5 in the Big East) after finishing 25-10 last year and losing coach Tom Crean to Indiana after the season.

Even without James, Marquette boasts a guard-heavy lineup, including Jerel McNeal (19.8 ppg.) and Wesley Matthews (18.8 ppg.). That will put the onus Saturday on the Syracuse frontcourt to carry the load.

‘They don’t have big guys like Arinze. They don’t have Rick, those type of guys,’ Harris said. ‘So I think it’ll be a more pound it down low type of game for us.’

Yet with Syracuse’s recent 3-game win streak, bumping its win total to 22, Saturday’s game is essentially only for seeding in the Big East tournament. Both teams have cemented their places both in the Big East tournament and likely the NCAA Tournament. The Orange clinched a first-round bye in the tournament Tuesday with its win over Rutgers. Marquette will try and secure a bye in the first two rounds of the tournament by defeating Syracuse.

With this year’s expanded tournament – all 16 teams will be playing in it for the first time – a first-round bye takes even more importance, to avoid the potential of playing five consecutive days.

‘Nobody wants to play five days down there,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s for sure.’

But before the Orange looks to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, it’s focusing on Marquette.

‘It’s a great challenge, it’s at Marquette,’ power forward Kristof Ongenaet said. ‘I think it doesn’t really matter that James is not going to be there. They’re a great team, and I think we just need to focus on them.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 5, 2009 at 12:00 pm