We shared five quick thoughts on Flory Bidunga committing to the Jayhawks. Find out what it means moving forward for Kansas basketball.
Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks have landed some top-tier names in the past few months. There’s Hunter Dickinson, arguably the best player to ever enter the transfer portal, and now there’s top-5 2024 recruit Flory Bidunga.
After long being considered a lock to Duke, Auburn had gained traction in the past few days and was the frontrunner heading into his announcement date. However, KU ultimately pulled away with the incoming senior from Kokomo High School, who is widely thought of as the best center in the upcoming recruiting class.
Bidunga’s commitment could influence many of the plans for the future of Kansas basketball. We evaluated how it affects the Jayhawks moving forward and offered a few thoughts on the situation.
1. Bill Self continues to prove he’s the best in the business
What an offseason it has been for Bill Self. He managed to put together the projected preseason No. 1 roster after losing seven players to the transfer portal and the team’s top two scorers to the NBA. And before the season even starts, he’s pulling out recruiting tricks in his back pocket.
Nearly five months after suffering a heart ailment that could have concluded his coaching career, Coach Self is back in full swing. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him this hungry. You can tell that missing the tournament and not being there for his team affected him, and he is out for vengeance.
Who is better than him as a college basketball head coach? Nobody. He proves that time and time again.
2. A Hunter Dickinson super senior season seems pretty unlikely
Although any school would take on a player of Bidunga’s caliber, it seems far-fetched to assume he and Dickinson will ever see the court together.
In my opinion, Kansas would not have gone all out for a big man if they expected the Michigan transfer to return to school. It goes without saying that Bidunga will be a one-and-done player, and he’d have a pretty hard time reaching his full potential with the Jayhawks alongside one of the nation’s best centers.
Flory and Hunter could probably coexist — one is 6-foot-8 and the other is 7-foot-2 — but choosing KU wouldn’t make sense for Flory’s professional career if he doesn’t expect to receive the bulk of minutes at the 5 next season. It was already an unlikely scenario to begin with, so don’t count on Dickinson spending more than one year in Lawrence.
3. Let’s hope he’s not a repeat of former Kansas basketball 5-star big men
Sorry if I seem pessimistic, but I’m just going off the past here. When looking at highly touted big-man recruits who committed to Kansas, you’ll see some concerning names. You have Cheick Diallo (bust), Carlton Bragg (bust), Billy Preston (didn’t play), Silvio de Sousa (yikes), and Ernest Udeh Jr. (transfer).
Then there’s Cliff Alexander, who does remind me a lot of Bidunga. He was undersized as a center and overpowered his high school competition, coincidentally one state over from Bidunga in Illinois. He was on top of the world pre-college. But when he got to Kansas, his game was simply not polished enough to excel at the college level.
Bidunga is rated higher than all the players I mentioned. In fact, as it stands, the only KU commits to have better prospect grades on 247 Sports than him all-time are Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson. Don’t get me wrong, I have high hopes for Bidunga — I’m just keeping this worry in the back of my mind.
4. High school recruitments are never “over”
When you’re talking about 17, 18-year-old kids, they don’t always know what they want for their future. I’m 19 and it took me months to choose my college between two state schools. And the difference was, schools weren’t offering me personal benefits and hundreds of thousands of dollars to play a sport for them. People weren’t commenting all over my social media begging me to commit there. Quite frankly, I don’t think anybody besides my family cared, and even then, it was one of the most difficult decisions of my life.
The moral of the story is high school recruitments aren’t over until they’re OFFICIALLY over. KU fans should know that after we all got duped into thinking Mackenzie Mgbako would be a Jayhawk.
I’ll admit, I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I posted an article basically writing off the possibility of Bidunga coming to Kansas just because some “analysts” put in crystal balls to Auburn. Some kids just have a last-minute change of heart. It happens. I guess you could say it was a lesson learned for everyone.
5. The sky is the limit for Flory Bidunga
When watching Bidunga’s film, it’s important to remember that he’s only been playing basketball for the better part of four years. That’s right, he didn’t pick up a ball until 2019, and he became one of the nation’s best prospects before graduating high school.
You could look at that fact and assume he will be too raw at the college basketball level. However, I think that he has not even come close to reaching his ceiling and still has a year to improve. His game might be suited more for the NBA, but he’s proven that he can take massive steps in a very short timeframe.
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