So Rick Pitino doesn't think that the Marquette men's basketball team will miss Dominic James in the next few games. He thinks Maurice Acker will be able to fill in admirably, at least until tournament time

Well, I don't particularly like Rick Pitino — I won't go into that because it is related to the NBA and because it will just get me upset — but I do respect his opinion as a great college basketball coach.

And in this case I agree with him, but for a fundamentally different reason. Come March, what the Golden Eagles will miss more than James' floor leadership, court vision or lock-down defense is, well, just having someone to play.

Coach Buzz Williams said after the Louisville game that he intends to play Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews for just about every possession going forward. But since he was basically already doing so before losing James, and since he was giving the senior point guard similar minutes, who else can he play?

The way I see it, Buzz has two options. He can plug Acker into James' role and then play the little-used David Cubillan the way he had been using Acker through the team's first 27 games. The other course of action is to increase the minutes of Jimmy Butler, Dwight Burke and Acker and start getting creative with lineups.

Judging by the breakdown of playing time in the team's losses to Louisville and Pittsburgh, Williams appears to be leaning toward the former. And judging by my tone thus far, I'd bet you can tell I am leaning toward the latter.

Injuries are unfortunate, but they are a part of sports. Williams' decision to look no further down his bench than Butler all season has now put him in a precarious situation.

The coach has made it clear that he is confident in Butler's abilities — evidenced by the sophomore's steadily increasing playing time. What Williams has not done is show much confidence in Acker. So why all of a sudden would he give Acker 35 minutes per game?

A much more plausible tactic would be to give Dwight Burke closer to 30 minutes per game (assuming he can stay out of foul trouble that long), allowing Lazar Hayward to spend more time at the four, a position he is better suited for anyway. Williams could then play Butler at the three spot, move Matthews down to the two and give McNeal some time at the point.

McNeal has the handle and playmaking ability to play at least part of the game at that position. That way Butler could be receiving the starters minutes (he is averaging 17.9 minutes per game on the season and 24 in his last five games) instead of Acker.

Another wise play would be to throw a few minutes toward the 6-foot-7 Joseph Fulce. The sophomore forward was, after all, the more highly touted of Williams' two juco recruits. Fulce has the length and athleticism to play the four when Hayward is manning the middle and has looked halfway decent in the very limited minutes he has received, averaging 9.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocks per 30 minutes.

There is an old adage in sports that says a coach should "stick with what got you here." Unfortunately for Williams, what got him here was a six-man rotation and a now-defunct point guard.

On the bright side, an unselfish, hard-nosed, juco afterthought also got him here. You know what to do, Buzz.