Why one KU Jayhawks player says Flory Bidunga can be ‘best big in our conference’
Flory Bidunga, who had already dazzled offensively by scoring a career-high 25 points, skied high to forcibly block a shot by Princeton forward Cash McSweeney with 3 minutes, 44 seconds left in Kansas’ 76-57 victory over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
The sky-high swat by Bidunga — with his dominant left hand — was the 6-foot-9, 220-pounder’s third rejection of the game (to go with 10 rebounds) and his final highlight-reel play.
Coach Bill Self removed the sophomore big man from the game during the final TV timeout to a thunderous ovation from 15,300 fans appreciative of Bidunga’s 27 minutes of work that included 10-of-11 shooting (5-of-6 from the free-throw line).
“It’s not even half of what we see (in practice),” KU senior guard Tre White said, asked to comment about the play of Bidunga. “I tell Flo all the time, whenever he flips that switch mentally, I feel like he’s the best big in our conference — in the nation, too. Tonight was a little glimpse of that for sure.”
White was KU’s second leading scorer Saturday with 18 points on 4-of-7 shooting (10-of-13 from the free-throw line) and eight rebounds in 32 minutes.
Bidunga surpassed by two points his previous career-best scoring mark of 23 points set in the season opener against Green Bay.
“I thought Flory … he’s the best player in the game, in the first half by far because he gave us a lead,” said KU coach Bill Self. His team had problems pulling away from Ivy League school Princeton with freshman point guard Darryn Peterson out with hamstring tightness.
“We obviously weren’t any good until then,” Self added of a Bidunga flurry of points to close the half and give KU a 37-29 lead at the break.
Bidunga scored 13 of KU’s final 15 points of the half, KU turning a 22-22 tie into a 37-29 advantage.
“Sometime there’s a way to go to me,” Bidunga said of teammates dishing him the ball in the paint or lobbing it up for slams. “I was trying to take what they gave me. They gave me the baseline, so I took the path. (On the) next one the middle was open. So again I was just trying to work on my athletic abilities and everything fed off pretty well.”
Bidunga scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting (3-of-4 from the free-throw line) in 17 minutes the first half. He had 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting (2-of-2 from the free-throw line) with six rebounds in 10 minutes the second half.
“I was just trying to do my best. Obviously they came out pretty strong. They were hitting a lot of 3s (5-of-17 the first half and 5-of-15 the second), and I felt if we put the energy on our side it will turn up a win. I was trying to do as much as possible,” Bidunga said.
Self agreed that Bidunga “flipped the switch” the final few minutes of the first half.
“We go from up three or one or whatever to eight at half primarily because of Flo offensively,” Self said.
Despite good games from Bidunga and White, the Jayhawks struggled in other areas, leading Self to say: “I’m not in the best of spirits at this moment, but we’ll get fired up” for the next game against Duke on Tuesday in New York.”
He also used the word (ticked) to describe his mood.
“ I think that we can obviously play a lot better, but our ball and body movement was very poor,” said Self.
He started forward Bryson Tiller for the first time this season and received six points and five rebounds from the freshman forward in 26 minutes. He was 1-of-6 shooting, but did go 1-of-3 from 3, cashing a big 3 with 14:10 left. It gave KU some breathing room with a 47-43 lead.
Also, Jayden Dawson (six points, three rebounds) cashed a huge 3-pointer with 12:40 left, upping a seven-point lead to 53-43.
“When you don’t move the ball and you don’t help each other, and then kind of stick or stand around and then end up not shooting the ball great, it doesn’t look great offensively,” Self said. “Even with Flory and Tre, I still think individually they were pretty good, and their numbers were good, but I don’t think we meshed very well together as a five-some at all today.”
Self inserted walk-on Wilder Evers for defense in the first half. Evers played three minutes.
“When a game plan is to deny back cuts ... we were beat on the first possession twice and then they got up six 3s in the first four minutes and 30 seconds of the half. That’s how you start the game,” Self said.
“Switching up and doing all that stuff, I think that was poor. That set the tone. You know, I was (ticked) from the beginning. Wilder has never entered a game that early in a game in his life. But I actually thought he did fine because we didn’t guard. It’s OK not to be great offensively, but you’ve got to be good defensively. And you know, if you’re not a great shooter, or you’re not making shots at this moment, then do something to help us win. And we didn’t guard.”
Of 3-point shooting, Self said: “It’s got to get better. We were 5-of-21. I think we’re better shooters than what we are (Saturday). Granted, if Darryn’s playing it’s a different deal because hopefully he’s the one shooting a third of those 3s himself. We’re obviously not going to have him at least for the immediate future. I just don’t know how long that will be.”
Tipoff for KU-Duke on Tuesday is set for 8 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York.
This story was originally published November 15, 2025 at 6:14 PM.
