LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self had a decision to make, after it was determined veteran forward KJ Adams would miss this past Saturday’s game against Kansas State due to injury.
Self could start off with a smaller lineup against the Wildcats and choose to insert a choice of two of veteran guards into Adams’ spot in AJ Storr or Rylan Griffen. He could turn to a freshman forward, Flory Bidunga, so the Jayhawks maintained an element of size in the starting five. Those options, and others, came with their positives and negatives in a Big 12 Conference setting.
But following the 84-74 win at home against Kansas State, Self’s explanation for why he chose Bidunga to start in place of Adams didn’t sound all that complicated. In fact, it appeared very straightforward. And Bidunga’s performance helped leave little doubt he would be the player Kansas (13-4, 4-2 in Big 12) would turn to in that spot moving forward, as long as Adams is unavailable.
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“(Bidunga)’s been the best of the other guys, at least to this point, so there wasn’t really a decision to be made on that,” Self said postgame. “… And if you look at it statistically, our best team analytically, regardless of who’s in the game, the two best — the best combination is Flory and (center) Hunter (Dickinson). When you talk about points per possession offensively, and points given up defensively. So, it wasn’t a hard decision.”
Bidunga rewarded the trust Self and his teammates put in him for his first career start in college with a six-point, nine-rebound, two-assist and one-block performance. He explained in an interview posted on Kansas basketball’s account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that starting meant a lot to him, and he knew they had to bring a lot of energy with Adams out. Finishing the game as its leading rebounder was a product, in his mind, of just coming out ready during a rivalry game.
Bidunga’s play didn’t come without its faults, of course. He ended up finishing with four fouls, and given the Jayhawks’ lack of depth in its front court that was an area of concern for Self coming into the game. But as Dickinson would outline postgame each player had his ups and downs during the matchup, and Bidunga largely handled the situation well.
It’s unclear how much longer Adams’ absence will continue past Wednesday’s road game at TCU. But No. 11 Kansas will enter that game with lessons learned from the win against Kansas State and experience with what it’ll look like if the Jayhawks go with a smaller lineup that has just one of Bidunga or Dickinson in the game at a time. And if someone like veteran guard Dajuan Harris Jr. is going to provide advice to Bidunga before tip-off in Fort Worth, Texas, odds are it won’t sound much different than Harris’ mindset toward Bidunga before Kansas State.
“What I tell (Bidunga), just do you, try to dominate, just do what you was told to do, do what you’ve been doing your whole life since you’ve been playing basketball, really try to make him comfortable,” Harris recalled about his advice before Bidunga’s start against Kansas State. “I mean, he knows what to do. I mean, coach’s going to get him out of him to play hard, like — I know you all see it on the sideline when coach gets mad at him. So, coach’s going to keep getting on him. We’re going to be there for him. We’ve got a lot of seniors, so we just try to help lead him to make him play better when KJ’s out.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Why Flory Bidunga started for Kansas basketball against Kansas State
