Freshman Flory Bidunga keeps proving he deserves bigger role with Kansas basketball

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LAWRENCE — There’s so much more doubt swirling around Kansas basketball’s potential this season right now than there was a week ago.

Losing 62-61 on Tuesday at home against West Virginia will do that. The No. 7 Jayhawks (9-3, 0-1 in Big 12 Conference) hadn’t lost a league opener in more than 30 years and looked rough — to put it lightly — for far too much of it.

This is a team that entered the season with aspirations for success both in the Big 12 and nationally, with a bevy of talent at its disposal, that now seems far too vulnerable to reach those goals.

But fans looking for some sort of positive from the lackluster effort should’ve seen one in Flory Bidunga. Bidunga, a freshman forward, proved to be a boost off the bench for Kansas against the Mountaineers. He finished with eight points and 11 rebounds.

Those 11 rebounds were a career-high for a former McDonald’s All-American, and his continued emergence means coach Bill Self has a decision to make when it comes to getting Bidunga more minutes — even if it means some veterans playing less.

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“Maybe we just play three bigs and just rotate those guys equally, but Flory’s got to play more,” Self said after the WVU loss.

“But the bottom line is the reason he’s got to play more is because we’re not really getting a lot out of a couple positions right now. And we’ve had some good practices, but obviously today — that’s as miserable of an offensive team as I’ve seen play in this building in 22 years. That was horrid. So, second half was a little better, but time and score dictated why we played better. Because when you’re behind and time’s running out, your team is more aggressive. We were never aggressive in the first half whatsoever.”

A player’s plus-minus in the box score after a game shouldn’t be the…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/freshman-flory-bidunga-keeps-proving-160328264.html

Author : The Topeka Capital-Journal

Publish date : 2025-01-02 16:03:00

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