KU Jayhawks ‘fearless freshman’ made statement vs. TCU: ‘That dude is going to be a guy’
Kansas freshman Flory Bidunga, who said he “felt great” about his first double-double as a college basketball player, certainly proved pivotal in Kansas’ 74-61 victory over TCU on Wednesday night at Schollmaier Arena.
The 6-foot-9, 220-pound native of the Democratic Republic of Congo believed, however, the effort of one of his teammates surpassed his own 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots.
“I think AJ is the reason we won. AJ is a big part of why we came back (from a 14-point first-half deficit). He’s getting better and better. We all feel good about that,” Bidunga said, referring to junior guard AJ Storr, who scored 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting with six rebounds and three steals in 22 minutes.
Wisconsin transfer Storr scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting with all three of his steals in a 15-minute second-half stint. Led by Storr and Shakeel Moore (11 points, two steals, all in second half), the Jayhawks outscored TCU 41-26 the final 20 minutes.
Storr had scored in single digits the last four games following his 11-point performance in a win at UCF. He entered the game averaging just 6.7 points per contest.
“I didn’t think anybody other than Flory was worth a flip the first half,” said KU coach Bill Self, who joked that “caffeine” probably kicked in for KU the final 20 minutes. KU trailed 35-33 at the break.
“AJ was really good, terrific,” Self added. “Shak was the best guard we had tonight. That was production we hadn’t been getting so that was great to see.”
Asked what Storr did against the Horned Frogs (10-8, 3-4) that he hadn’t done in many previous games, Self said: “Defensively he was active. He got a couple steals, ran through some passes. He was more aggressive driving the ball and scoring the ball. That is probably the longest stint he’s been able to play through some mistakes. I thought he was really good tonight.”
Moore’s three 3s the final half were huge as the Jayhawks stormed past the Frogs to improve to 14-4 overall and 5-2 in the league.
“I don’t know surprising,” Self said of Moore’s 4-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 from 3) but we don’t anticipate him going 3-for-3 from the exact same spot in the left corner every time. Shak was pretty good defensively, too. The second half he was player of the game I thought.”
Moore entered the game 2-of-9 from 3.
“My work is finally showing up,” Mississippi State transfer guard Moore said of working on shooting. “It’s all about confidence to me, getting the reps in practice, after practice. The work showed up for sure.”
Moore was impressed with Storr, that’s for sure.
“We know what he’s capable of. It’s all about figuring it out,” Moore said. “Once he does that, it’s over.”
Of Bidunga, who helped hold former KU big man Ernest Udeh to seven points and eight rebounds, Moore gushed: “That dude is going to be a guy, for real. He was plus-27? He’s a fearless freshman. He doesn’t look like a freshman at times.”
Storr talked about defense in the interview room after the game.
“It was good being active on that side,” Storr said. “I tried to lock things up in the passing lanes.”
Moore, by the way, said a key moment in the game came when KU’s Hunter Dickinson (16 points, nine rebounds) and TCU’s Trazarien White went for a rebound of a Rylan Griffen 3-point miss with KU up 47-46 in the second half.
Both players refused to release the ball in an epic battle for possession, the players stumbling toward the TCU student section. A technical foul was called on both Dickinson and White. Some other Horned Frogs, including Malick Diallo, were involved, unsuccessfully trying to rip the ball from Dickinson.
“It fired us up,” Moore said of KU, which outscored TCU by 12 after that double technical. “Because it fired up their crowd and all that.”
KU coach Self said Dickinson should have let go of the ball when the refs blew the whistle on a tie up.
“I thought it was asinine that our guy would hang onto the ball like that,” Self said. “I guess maybe in some world (a play like that) provides more street cred, which in the world that somebody would actually think that I don’t think (they) are very knowledgeable about ball. That was a bonehead play. What made it bonehead play as much anything, when the whistle blows you stop. I’m sure they blew it several times. It cost us a possession I was not happy to see that at all.”
TCU coach Jamie Dixon said: “I thought basically it was unimportant. I guess the official told them to stop and they didn’t.”
KU will next meet Houston at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
