The Kansas men’s basketball team quickly fell into a 10-point hole against West Virginia at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday through seven minutes. The Mountaineers led 13-3 and had 10 rebounds to the Jayhawks’ four.
Then came freshman Flory Bidunga.
Bidunga played six minutes in the first half and had five rebounds, almost half of the team’s first-half total. Over that span, the Jayhawks and the Mountaineers had six rebounds apiece. For the final seven minutes with Bidunga off the floor, the Mountaineers had six rebounds to the Jayhawks’ two.
The 6-foot-9 freshman has continuously earned praise from his teammates and coaches throughout the year. And in a half where little to nothing went right for Kansas, Bidunga was a bright spot. It wasn’t missed by Kansas coach Bill Self.
The second half also featured some of Bidunga’s best work. Self placed Bidunga more along the perimeter on defense, where he switched effectively and guarded players such as West Virginia’s Sencire Harris and KJ Tenner. Self said that it was probably Bidunga’s first time defending against point guards but that he did well in the moment, and teammate Zeke Mayo said that it was an impressive accomplishment.
“I mean, his defense was incredible,” Mayo said. “It’s not often you see a 6-9 guy pick up a point guard 94 feet. That’s just incredible. His athleticism, it really was on display tonight, and then (he) obviously came up huge with some offensive rebounds, some great looks from the guys when he’s posting up and sealing inside, and he just played an overall fantastic game.”
Mayo was one of the offensive beneficiaries of Bidunga’s offensive play. Self said that they had Bidunga set ball screens and run to the rim, which allowed angles for Mayo to get to the free-throw line. Mayo finished with 27 points on 6-for-13 shooting with 13-for-13 free throws.
Self deployed a frontcourt of Hunter Dickinson and Bidunga for much of the second half to counteract an off night from KJ Adams. West Virginia men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries said the lineup hurt the Mountaineers on both ends and forced them away from some of their game plan.
“We weren’t able to kind of do our ball screen defense, maybe, how we kind of planned it,” DeVries said. “They were ducking (Bidunga) in a lot more against our undersized wing forwards. And then at the other end, they were kind of cross-matching some things so they could protect the paint a little bit.”
DeVries added that it prevented some of the Mountaineers’ pick-and-roll opportunities that helped them get to such a large lead in the first half.
The Jayhawks’ trio of post players — Adams, Bidunga and Dickinson — have a unique blend of skills that Self can utilize situationally in a game. Tuesday was a game where the Jayhawks needed a boost from Bidunga, and they got it.
Out on the perimeter in a key moment, Bidunga did find himself in the air lurching into WVU guard Javon Small, committing a shooting foul that led to Small’s game-winning free throw. But Self said it was his fault Bidunga found himself in that situation.
“We should have put KJ on 0 (Eduardo Andre) because 0 was going to be the ball-screener,” Self said. “So if you switch five, KJ’s on him instead of Flory. That’s not Flory’s fault, that’s my fault.”
Bidunga finished with eight points while shooting 4-for-4 from the field. He added 11 rebounds and he trailed only David Coit in plus-minus at plus-8. Dickinson said that teams often put a smaller player on Bidunga when the two share the court, which allows Bidunga to have more success with post-ups and offensive rebounds. Bidunga’s athleticism makes him a difficult matchup on both ends.
Going forward, Self said that there might be more of a rotation between the three bigs, rather than Bidunga receiving the backup minutes to Adams and Dickinson. As the season continues, Bidunga’s role will continue to evolve as it already has. However it looks, his team has high expectations for the freshman.
“He’s the best athlete, in my opinion, on the floor every time,” Dickinson said. “He’s a great asset for us and he came up big today.”
