Flory Bidunga already predicted to join Big 12 rival in total gut punch for Kansas

Last offseason, Flory Bidunga entered the Transfer Portal, coming off an exciting freshman season. Ultimately, he opted to return to Lawrence for his sophomore campaign. Now, a year later, the Transfer Portal has yet to open, but already Bidunga has announced his intention to declare and seemingly already has a destination lined up. 

On the eve of the portal opening on Tuesday, 247Sports logged a prediction for Bidunga to land at Texas Tech. Losing Bidunga, either to the portal or the NBA, would be rough for Bill Self, but losing him to Grant McCasland’s Red Raiders would be even worse. 

Prediction logged for Texas Tech to land Flory Bidunga

Houston and Arizona’s arrival to the Big 12 has knocked Self off the conference throne. However, even without the league’s expansion, Texas Tech has emerged as another threat to the Jayhawks supremacy in recent years. The Red Raiders were angling towards Big 12 contention again this season until first-team All-American JT Toppin went down with a season-ending ACL injury. 

It’s still not clear what Toppin is going to do this offseason. The 6-foot-9 forward hs one season of eligibility remaining, and would be unlikely to leave for the NBA while recovering from his injury. Still, he could test the portal waters, and if he does, Bidunga would be an ideal replacement. 

Regardless of Texas Tech’s plan for its front court, Bidunga will be difficult to be replace if he does leave Lawrence this time around. His frontcourt mate last season, Bryson Tiller also intends to enter the portal and with the push across college basketball to supersize like Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and all the best teams in the sport this season, big men will be a hot commodity in the portal. 

In some respects, Kansas’s roster build for next season is in limbo until Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 player in the 2026 high school class, make his final decision. Stokes is expected to land with the Jayhawks, but Washington and Gonzaga have been making a late push for the McDonald’s All-American. 

Stokes’s decision will determine how much NIL and revenue-sharing money Self and his staff have to spend in the portal, but he’s not expected to commit until after the Nike Hoop Summit this weekend. If Bidunga leaves, especially to another Big 12 contender, landing Stokes will be even more paramount for the Jayhawks.