After Vegas, Self Plays Seven Card Stud Vs. Horn Hoppers
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This year’s team was supposed to be another deep one.
Ha!
In the first close game that mattered, Self revealed his hand.
Self is now playing 7-card stud.
The usual five up cards to start are what he hopes play like face cards.
4 out…1 in.
Two whole cards in case one of the up cards shows up without a face.
Self’s one-eyed jack, Josh Jackson, lost face. He was cold and fouled up before you could say OAD. He played like a deuce.
Fortunately Self’s usual hole cards–Svi and Vick–came up a pair of Aces.
Which was lucky because his usual Aces–Frank and Devonte–came up a queen and an eight.
The only other up to show face was Landen Lucas, who played like a glass-vaccing Ace, with 17 boards, and the rest of his line added up to a king. Landen seems well at last.
Lucky us.
Coleby and Lightfoot were jokers Self took out of the deck.
Going to be lots and lots of close games the rest of the way.
We are back to playing every hand close to the vest.
Self hasn’t had to play 7-card stud wearing an arm garter and a green visor for awhile.
But the Riverboat Gambler, as @drgnslayr calls him, is usually pretty good at bluffing his way through lean hands.
Keep the pots manageable and don’t overreach.
Anticipate Aces and eights.
Hope your cards become full houses and inside straights, when you need them.
Dealer, give him his chips!
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@jaybate-1.0 If he is not going to play Colby versus TCU when JJ is in foul trouble, then I can’t imagine he gets dealt any minutes against the perennial big boys of B12. What it did do is force Bragg to play like a 10, and I felt like he played solid enough to think there are jack and queen games inside him.
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Thanks for mentioning Bragg’s involvement. I had to go back and look at the box score to realize he contributed in a necessary way to get the road win against a determined TCU. In 16 min., Bragg had 9 rebounds and 5 points. He was in the mix under the glass. Way to go Carlton.
What I like about Jayhawk basketball is watching who is going to get the job done given what the opponents and referees are doing. Frank is this team’s Perry. Put him down for 20+ every game. Vick and Lucas were my heroes of the TCU game. Vick is a necessary component to our success this year. RCJH
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Devonte is hurt. JJ is hurt in a different way. Look for JJ to pound some Grapes next game.
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@KUSTEVE I don’t fault Josh for only being on the court 12 minutes. Some of it is just the way the game flows. Mostly, the refs seem to call fouls on Josh for the most minor contact, when much more contact between other players goes uncalled. Self was right to protest strongly about the third foul called on Josh. Against a different team, a double technical probably results in a loss. The calls against Josh reminded me of the first several games of the season when no matter what Josh did, a foul was called.
I worry that other OADs will see the refs putting Josh on the bench and choose to play in other conferences. Does anyone know if there is a post-game review by the Big 12 of calls and non-calls? I’ve always wondered if the league grades these guys.
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@stoptheflop JJ and the rest of us better get used to it because imagine what the calls will be like in the March Rig-a-thon?
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@Fightsongwriter That is mighty good stuff, “March Rig a thon!”
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PHOF
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Affirmative.
Bragg balled some.
9 counts when its against some size inside.
Memo to Carlton: this is how you earn your spurs. Stay mean cause the war is coming to you the next 8 weeks!
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What is the injury report on Devonte and Josh?
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@jaybate-1.0 Graham banged knees, he’ll be fine considering he never checked out of the game after it happened. JJ’s injury is his ego right now with a side case of officiating because that was his absolute worst game as a Jayhawk despite the total BS call that led to his technical and sat him for most of the second half.
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@jaybate-1.0 I was thinking the same thing. If Coleby and Lightfoot can’t get minutes last night then we’ve got a seven man rotation. I’m more pessimistic after last night than I have been all season.
Wins are nice of course, especially after that horrible start, but we missed a ton of bunnies and seemingly gave up Red Sea parting drives to the hoop all night.
Not positive Lucas can be a superstar every night either like we’ll need him to be.
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@wissox I can’t remember a game where I have seen the opponent have so many open looks or clean drives to the basket. Hopefully, they will get this corrected. It was good that we could win when JJ was basically absent. I agree that although LL won’t put up those numbers every night…it was good that he proved that he could…and give us hope that he will now start playing more often like he did at the end of last year.
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Some random un- leavened thoughts -
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I wonder if Bragg is the new Seldon. There was talk of him being a OAD or TAD, but I guess I’m not seeing it. Which is all the better if he sticks around for another season. Great effort to try and not get pushed around last nite.
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there will be the usual hot and cold shooting nights for our smalls- thank the hoop gods we have 4 of them to spread the odds. We will need them in a big big way. And when cold Frank can drive and draw fouls 80% of the time.
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JJ has a serious motor and relentless desire, and doesn’t seem the be “protecting the NBA-bound goods” at all. He is fast becoming my favorite KU OAD of all time, but he will be harder pressed to make an impact as the D he will now face will be fierce going forward, and more bigs to stop his driving.
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Landon. If he can come close to doing what he did last night in league play, we may be alright. Somehow I think he is going the be the key to our future success. If he could only learn to draw fouls underneath better!! - he is a good foul shooter. And weird not seeing coleby last nite…
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a road win in league play is just plain always always good no matter how ugly
time of the year to forget what one’s nation ranking is… useless.
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@jaybate-1.0 bragg’s boards padded from missed lay ups. He did look a lil tougher-not letting them take the ball from from him.
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@Bosthawk great point on JJ.
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@jaybate-1.0 Devonte was hobbling-Josh was hurt emotionally.
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I had a bad feeling about this game before the tip. Dixon can coach, and they are paying him over three million to do what he did in the ACC at Pitt. TCU’s strength of schedule was tougher than Tech and K-State. I was very surprised that they were sold out. Winning on the road anywhere in the Big 12 is hard. People get up for KU at their house. Ask Ford, ask Huggie. ESPN, of course, pumped up the big wins by WVU and Baylor and deservedly so, but to sell advertising, the big story was “What’s wrong with Kansas!” This happens every year. It is a tremendous miracle every year to win the Conference. Last year we were down two games behind WVU, and we won. We’ve shared a number of these 12 titles with other teams, (K-State). This has been the beauty of KU basketball. Win on the road whether or not you are playing well, finding a way to win. 4 losses will win the Big 12 this year.
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@Fightsongwriter Ya, the Rig-a-thon we’ll be watching on east-coast bias EastSportsPN (BSPN), and CBS (CompleteB.S.) or (Clipped-coverageB.S.).
But getting a guy like Jamie Dixon from Pitt to the Midwest is good for our league, good for Self, and a nice thumb on the nose to those back East. TexasChristianU is clearly the better purple in the Big12, with Gary Patterson & now Jamie Dixon added. Thank the lord…
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“Ya, the Rig-a-thon we’ll be watching on east-coast bias EastSportsPN (BSPN), and CBS (CompleteB.S.) or (Clipped-coverageB.S.).”
Heard a funny one this past week… and it came from a Duke fan (BTW, not in my family).
He called Jay Bilas, Jay Bias.
I guess this has spread to quite a few basketball fans, including Duke fans. What I understand is the creative tagging was an accident by a journalist who just had a typo on Bilas.
So… “Jay Bilas, loyal Duke of Duke, servant of the Kingdom of Dukery, I hereby knight you in perpetuity, Sir Jay Bias!”
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The TCU game was a game of draw poker for the Riverboat Gambler.
He merely threw down two cards for his redraw, Mitch and Dwight, in hopes of building a winning hand.
There is simply NO WAY Mitch and Dwight will remain invisible this season. They will both get very important minutes.
But Bill really needed to get Landen and Carlton established on positive ground immediately. Just look how they responded. This game ended up being a big plus for us. Road games are usually tough wins, especially for us because no team in the Big 12 wants to lose at home to Kansas. Every away game we have in Big 12 is a game where our opponents will be totally pumped.
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I’m quickly becoming a Dixon fan. I think he is a quality person and a big positive addition to the Big 12!
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I just had this thought. LL was telling coach with his play ‘don’t take me out, I dare you’
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I hope so. Maybe he has decided to just use Coleby one out of 2 in 3 to save his knee.
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@drgnslayr I don’t know how much we actually see of Coleby or Lightfoot in meaningful minutes. Foul issues will probably be their biggest source of minutes, but even last night, Self never played two bigs together. It Lucas or Bragg all night, never both of them together. That’s a pretty strong indicator to me that Self is going with a 7 man rotation in the post UA part of the season with Lightfoot and Coleby getting spot monutes at best.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 LL and Bragg played some together…probably not a meaningful amount…but they were both out there.
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@Hawk8086 They have played together some this year, but not last night. Those two subbed for each other all night.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Was brief, but they were on the floor together for at least one spell. Soon I will watch the game again and try to post the time period(s).
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@drgnslayr @jaybate-1.0 Save the knee theory is good, or what about the Road theory? Coach sees its a dog fight. We have horrible start that puts us in the hole. Colby and Mitch have never experienced anything remotely like a Big 12 war, so he ices them until they can get first taste of a conference battle in the friendly confines to boost confidence and give them better chance for success. Had we started strong and been up 8-10 pts, bill may have risked playing the wild cards. Bragg and LL knew what to expect and handled the heat.
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@drgnslayr Funny about Jay Bilas, and Ive seen posters here or the old site make that same play on his name.
That being said, I personally dont have a problem with Jay Bilas…always seemed fair to KU. His in-game commentary and sarcastic jeering at the refs can be quite hilarious. I also think some have considered Bilas to speak in a haughty, or elitist voice, but whenever I hear that tone, I go macro and think about him as a professional-school graduate, and also a college bball royalty program alumnus–hey, he can have that tone, its ok. I can have that tone, if I want, at times. It reminds me of some professional colleagues. Let Dick Vitale champion the little guys with his on-air persona. I’ll keep blue-blood Bilas. He understands royalty program expectations. Its not like KU’s royalty level fans are going to suddenly start championing the little guys, the same little guys that want our head? We always say “target on our back”, well think about who’s always aiming at us. And its ALWAYS shameful when we lose to the little guys. Its never disgraceful to lose to a fellow royalty program, though–> they wear the same target on their backs that we do.
So, east-coast media bias and mktg aside, I do appreciate Jay Bilas, as he always seems to appreciate KU. Recall how bad & transparent Doug Gottlieb was…
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@ralster Among current Division 1 announcers, I will opt for Jay B. any time.
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I think Bilas is mostly OK and one of the better analyst around. The only problem I have with him is that he has been at the forefront of the people bound and determined to sissify the game by calling all these ticky-tack fouls that take away from the game, penalize good defense, disrupt the tempo of the game and make refereeing even more inconsistent and unpredictable.
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@Texas-Hawk-10 Okay, I watched that TCU game again, with an eye to the Lucas/Bragg combos. First half they joined on the court at 8:37 mark, stayed in game together until 3:15 (5 minutes, 22 seconds). Second half they both were on floor at 11:02, and I am not certain when they broke apart (I went to sleep).
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@REHawk Thanks for that info.
