Congrats....JQ got injured and is now out for SEC play because you wanted to use him for Bellarmine.
It's about logic. Yes. You have to practice. You don't have to risk injury in a game you're going to win regardless by going hard for 30 minutes.
There's a reason NFL teams don't play their starters the last week before playoffs much. We need every SEC win we can get- thus no reason to risk a dude more than need in a game against a low D1 opponent.
Well, the reason NFL teams sit players the last week, is because they can’t improve, or lose their current playoff standing, not because they are lowering the risk of injury.
The argument for playing JQ 15 or so minutes against Bellarmine, is to get him into game shape. You have to get him into actual games to make that happen. It's hard to similulate that in practice, the stress isn’t there and it would actually suck more if he got hurt in practice than a game.
Either way, I think JQ is going to be great, but there are arguments for both sides here.