Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks Basketball Deep Dive Into 2024 5-Star Center Flory Bidunga: Could He Reclassify?

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Following a scheduled visit for class of 2024 5-star center Flory Bidunga to Lawrence, diving into the future freshman's game with a scouting report, how he would fit into the team with the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball program, where things are at for him and Bill Self, and what are the chances he reclassifies into the class of 2023 / how would that impact KU?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsToday's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. Go to birddogs.com/lockedoncollege and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONCOLLEGE, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be deep diving into Flory Badunga, the 2024 five-star number three recruit in the country who just visited KU. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. You can hear me as well. Monday through Friday, three to 6 PM on Rock Chalk Sports Talk with KLWN, your flagship station in Lawrence,

three to six Monday through Friday. You can find Locked on Jayhawks wherever you get any of your podcasts. Thanks for making Locked on Jayhawks your first listen every day. We are also available on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be deep diving into Flory Badunga, a great name and a player who just visited KU over this past weekend, or at least that was supposed to be the plan. It was supposed to come in this past Friday.

I believe everything happened and occurred. That was obviously the plan and everything. He's a class of 2024 recruit. So not this class, but would be the year after. He does have the ability to reclassify though. And that adds some intrigue here into the whole recruiting. So scheduling the visit, doing all that stuff. It also becomes interesting because KU is now,

you know, with the top three recruits in the class of 2024 trey johnson flory badunga set up visits there and you know whether it's possibly trying to get a guy like the reclassify or just trying to set yourself up well for the class of 2024 when you know what if hunter dickinson goes and you have a big opening there at the center position after already losing earnest due Uday and Zuby Edgeford becomes very important to keep building the recruiting forward. And as KU moves out of this, the IRP stuff and the NCAA stuff, we've seen KU be able to land other top end recruits. We've seen them be able to land five-star recruits. And I think Quentin Grimes was a top 10 recruit and Grady Dick was the Gatorade national player

of the year and other top 20 recruits and Dots mcdonald's all americans but we haven't seen them really since this stuff happened be able to land like those top five recruits the josh jackson's of the world the andrew wiggins of the world and you know i i think the most ideal roster construction is a team like i always think back to how you added josh jackson where he wasn't he didn't have to be the number one guy you had Frank Mason you had other really good players like Devante Graham Landon Lucas and so forth but he was able to add that extra punch right and that's ideal of what you're able to do with this but you haven't been able to land those players since then now are those two things related are

they not I don't know I kind of think they Again, you've been able to land really good players, but not like the top, top, top tier guy. Now, maybe as you're getting out of this, you're going to have a better chance with some of these guys like a Trey Johnson and Badunga. And this is a player who has really kind of risen up the recruiting ranking. Somebody who just started playing basketball a few years ago. He has really kind of taken off since he started playing basketball um we'll get into the scouting report and how he would fit in with ku to finish up on the show here but yeah as of right now basically you said you know visits all that sort of stuff and the big question becomes will he reclassify he was asked in an interview by 24-7 sports, and he just straight up said, no, I will not reclassify.

Now, is that, I don't know, is that just like a firm plan? Kind of sounds firm by the short sentence that was used there. Is that how he's feeling at the moment, or is that something that a coaching staff could convince? Is it something that the coaching staff would want to convince right if you're bill self are you going we'd rather you not reclassify because we don't want you being mad that you only played you know eight to ten minutes per game as hunter diggins and backup and then you transfer away and you go somewhere else or if you're ku do you view it as hey we can bring you in for this year and you view this year as a developmental year you were going to spend this year at playing prep ball anyway so what's the big difference if you don't play a ton here right you're still going to get eight to ten minutes a

game as the backup center and then in year two with us in the program I mean if you if you're that good in those eight to ten minutes maybe you can go pro after that one year um if we win a title and it's like a, you know, Donovan Klingin could have gone and he might've been a first round pick for Connecticut playing like 12 minutes per game for them. Maybe there's that situation there, but guess what? Worst case in 2024, Hunter Dickinson goes, you're our starting center. And, you know, I guess if Hunter Dickinson comes back for year two,

you can always use your transfer and it's like, you're at your school like you were going to be as a freshman, but now you have college experience under your belt. And guess what? We're going to get you NIL money in year one that you wouldn't be making in playing the prep level. So, like, there are certain reasons you could maybe try to convince him to reclassify.

And the idea there for Kansas, again, the negative would be you don't want him feeling like, oh, I only got these backup minutes. But if you come in with that plan, the idea of that happening so that he can be the starting center the next year, then maybe that works out. But also for KU, you're searching for another body. You're searching for another center right now. So it would make some sense to be like, yeah, there's no pressure on you. You'd come in and be the backup center. And then the next year you could star as the guy we expect you to be but now you'd have a year in the system and all that sort of stuff um to where you know it could make some sense that would check a lot of boxes for ku both

in terms of the future center in terms of having a backup center right now that you would bring in at this point with expectations that wouldn't necessarily be that starting level player so it would make sense from ku's perspective i guess from his perspective though he'd rather keep developing as like the star player on a team as a player who's getting a lot of those touches. And that seems to be the indication that he's not going to reclassify. Again, you start throwing some things around there. You start getting convincing people talking convincingly like Bill Self can be. You start throwing numbers around with NIL money and stuff.

Maybe that stuff can budge. Maybe it can move. But overall, I think the expectation is that's not going to happen, at least for now. Let's get on to the scouting report for Flory Badunga here. First, though, this episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Looking for a delicious snack but don't want all the sugar and calories? Then you need to try the best tasting protein bar ever with Bilt. You want to eat healthier during the day.

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So you can get that at Sam's Club or Walmart or at Built.com with Built Bar. On to the scouting report for Flory Badunga. So this obviously won't be as much of a scouting report as in the same vein in how we did like McKenzie and Bacos, where we don't have as much from the numbers perspective right we don't have you know college basketball numbers we don't have things to point to so a lot of these are going to be pulling excerpts from different scouting services and stuff to kind of put things together and then we'll put the picture together for you here so we'll start with the strengths uh this is Jamie Shaw from on three Flory Badunga is a physical specimen at six foot

ten he has long arms broad shoulders and a lot of burst he's an excellent shot blocker both on the ball and from the weak side his natural timing and can get up to the square quickly even through contact badunga runs the four quickly and purposely purposefully he can push the brake with his handle but does not get too deep and out of control it's pretty much what you're talking about there is a center that has good size length is physical is a good athlete runs well up and down the floor you can you know he's the number three recruit in the country you can see the potential there offensively badunga has a good iq he is smart and dribble handoffs and can post wide and deep on the block if help comes he's able to find the open man and deliver a good pass he's a good offensive rebounder those things all sound

great for ku KU offense. Good IQ. Bill Self likes that. I mean, every coach likes that. Smart and dribble handoffs. KU runs that a lot. Can post wide and deep on the block. Okay.

KU loves big men that can post up. If help comes, able to find an open man, deliver a good pass. That's important when you're a team that likes to post up. And then physically, he is like a college upperclassman and is already one of the premier explosive athletes in high school basketball. Now, if we do go back to the reclassification conversation one big problem a lot of times with guys who reclassify is are they physically ready are they physically able to do it we've seen situations where guys reclassify and it doesn't work out and it stunts their growth or they're just not ready to play right away and it takes them an extra year

we've also seen other guys who have been physically ready the one that sticks out to me the most is marvin bagley marvin bagley reclassified i was like an august pickup or something it was really late in the game and ended up going to duke and that freshman year ended up being you know first team all acc ended up being a first round pick top five pick like unbelievable college season in his one year so it can work but you have to be physically ready and i know that's been a knock like with trey johnson who's the number one recruit in 24-7 sports he's still trying to work on his physicality adding weight adding more strength to his build not as much the case with badunga so if you if that does become more of a conversation of would he reclassify that is something to keep in mind that

he does according to this sound more physically ready to be able to do just that. Now, there's a really good in the athletics. Seth Davis wrote it about Badunga and kind of his come up on the high school level of how he. Yeah, he hadn't been playing basketball for a while, and he just had this soaring rise here. Here's one excerpt from that. Again, I highly recommend just checking out the whole story for a guy who flew under the radar for so long. Badunga sure is hard to miss. He stands a chiseled 6'9 and 215 pounds with long arms and unusual bounce for a player his size.

He's a prolific dunker who catches post entries in traffic, finishes with both hands. He's a natural lefty, so that'd be kind of fun. You'd have him and Dickinson, both lefties, right? He's a rapid repeat jumper and routinely beats guards down the floor. He's equally dominant on the defensive end. Moreover, Badunga plays the game with a high motor and cheerful demeanor, and by all accounts, he is extremely coachable. I mean, it almost sounds like a mix of,

I'll throw three KU comps into one, and we'll put them into a blender. So you have the Ernest Uday kind of comp of being a guy who's really long and a guy who runs the floor really well. Like, Ernest runs the floor like a gazelle he gets up and down the floor man he long strides like all that stuff um then you have the a little bit of a Cliff Alexander comp like six foot nine now on three lists him at six foot ten I don't know but Cliff Alexander was more like six foot eight but you're talking about a center who this isn't a seven footer right which usually if you're ranked this high you're seven feet tall or something but he's that springy type of athlete who's really strong and then the other one is kind of the joel mb'd and and i don't mean to be like oh he's going to

be nba mvp like no i just mean guy who hasn't played basketball that long uh very raw but is picking up the game very quickly and that kind of is the case with bedunga so kind of mix those three in a blender there and probably end up end up with something really, really good. So, I mean, what you're talking about here with all the strengths is someone that, yes, I mean, you're talking about the number three recruit in the country. So every team would be lucky to have him. Every team would be like, oh, yeah, we'll make this work

and this guy's going to have a serious impact on your program. But for KU, when we talk about them liking to build around the big, it certainly makes a lot of sense. Now, seen other big men I mean that's been a position when you think of the KU freshmen that have come in and made the biggest impact most of them are wings you know when you think of the best one and done freshman under Bill Self it's Andrew Wiggins and Josh Jackson and Grady Dick and you know if you want to count Ben McElmore like he would be a wing too Xavier Henry had a good right you think about the one and done freshman the wings have an easier time transitioning it I don't know if there's a reason for that maybe there's

more uh account like different things you have to learn as the center or maybe because you're kind of the backbone of the defense and because how much Bill Self needs to trust you and with your importance on both ends of the floor like being kind of the primary option on offense in a lot of ways posting up maybe there's just a bigger learning curve there's a big man because you think about some of the you know five-star big men they've brought in and it has been a longer learning curve from Cliff Alexander to Sheck Diallo Joel Embiid is talented as great as he was he wasn't starting to begin the season so maybe this is a guy that you would have to temper expectations for from that standpoint, but he does everything there that you're kind of looking for

is kind of a raw prospect. So maybe into that blender of those guys I mentioned, maybe you do throw a Sheck Diallo in there and that didn't work out at Kansas. He's obviously had a productive NBA career afterwards, but he certainly would be someone who you would expect to be a very good player wherever he goes, especially at KU. His his weaknesses this is from on threes jamie shaw the jump shot extends out to about 10 feet so we would like to see him work on stretching that out some he needs to improve his free throws as he gets to the line a lot so not really a great shooter he's more of the old-fashioned big men like rim runner would be good in pick and roll which is great since you have dewan harris whether it's this year next year right you have dewan harris whether it's

this year next year right could have dewan for two years um get him in the dunker spot throw lobs to him um but it sounds like he does have a little bit more post movement to him than maybe like earnest and zoobie possibly had for you uh like last year um and i think the the biggest like thing is by him not playing basketball a ton of years does that mean he's raw does that mean it's going to take him a little bit longer to get accustomed to the college game because there are certain things or more things that he has to learn because the learning curve is a little bit better even though the like you're molding the ball of clay but the ball of clay is like I don't know are there multiple clay? Like, is one more expensive than the other?

But like, basically he has the potential to be this extremely extravagant, well-made item, but is it going to take a little bit longer to form that stuff out? That becomes kind of a question. And for a player who's expected to be a one and done, if you're only going to get one year out of him, like, again, you only got one year out of Sheck Diallo

and it didn't really work out, is that worth it for you in that situation? Obviously, you take the risk because the potential of those players is that high, but going back to the conversation about the wings versus the bigs, is one and done working or not working for KU? That certainly would be a story, but you

would expect if Padunga did pick KU, you'd expect him to be a very big impact player for sure. Alright, let's finish up with how he would fit in to the roster here with Locked on Jayhawks. How would Flory Badunga fit into the roster? I think a lot of people would buy Flory Badunga jerseys, by the way, just because the last name is awesome. And he sends like, I mean, we talked about, you know, cheerful demeanor, high motor, loved by the coach. It seems like he would be like a KU favorite, right?

I mean, heck, maybe you even throw in. I added like four KU players into a blender. Maybe we throw in Thomas Robinson with the cheerful demeanor, the high motor and stuff. And maybe we throw in who had a cheerful demeanor. And why can't I? Devante Graham. Okay.

We just made the dumbest, I don't know, player comp blender of all time. So I'm just going to stop there. But how he would fit in. Let's look at this in two ways. The first way, if he reclassifies. The second way, if he's in the class of 2024. If Flory Badunga reclassified, which I do not believe is going to happen,

but if it did, then he would fit in immediately as your backup center you look at the roster and you'd say okay hunter dickinson's are starting five it doesn't sound like badunga based on the the idea that you know he can't really stretch out past 10 feet much you wouldn't play him next to hunter dickinson right so he'd be your backup center i would imagine he'd play all of your backup center minutes so if dickinson gives you 32 minutes a game that's eight if he gives you 30 minutes a game that's 10 so he'd play all of your backup center minutes. So if Dickinson gives you 32 minutes a game, that's eight. If he gives you 30 minutes a game, that's 10.

So he's playing all your backup center minutes. That allows for KJ Adams to basically just be your emergency center, your third string center that you're not playing there. But in case somebody gets hurt and in foul trouble, then he can be your backup center. KJ is playing the four position. What would that look like when Badunga is on the floor next to KJ Adams? I don't know.

Maybe you work out your minutes that if KJ is playing, you know, 30 minutes per game at the four, all his minutes or 25 minutes, whatever are when Hunter Dickinson's on the floor. And then whenever Badunga's out there are the minutes Marcus Adams plays that you always have one of those two big men are a shooter out there, right? So that is some way that you could make that work. And if you did reclassify, it obviously raises your game this year. It basically checks off the box that you could make that work. And if you did reclassify, it obviously raises your game this year. It basically checks off the box that you wouldn't need to go out and get like a different center to just be a body. It would also still leave you with two open scholarships that you could go

out and get a wing player who could play the three or the four for you. It would check a lot of boxes for you this year. And then if you did reclassify, if he has that good season as a backup, you go into the following season going, okay, this guy's probably going to be our starter. Or if Hunter Dickinson comes back for year two, then he's probably like, OK, I'm going to transfer out and go somewhere else. So that's probably how that would kind of all work out.

Now, if he does not reclassify and if he does just stay in the class of 2024, then the fit on the team obviously is dependent on who's back on the team and in this day and age in this you know modern era of college basketball it's almost impossible to know who is going to be on the team year to year you kind of just have to get to it when you get there right like every year is a new fork in the road and instead of just left or right there are 17 different directions in which you can go to and so you don't totally know but in theory dewan harris can be back for a sixth year kj adams can be back for what would be his senior year hunter dickinson could be back for another year so i mean if you're talking how he'd fit if it's class of 2024 if hunter dickinson comes back for a second year he probably just wouldn't even pick kansas like that wouldn't even be a thing but i guess at that point if he did he'd be the backup

five and then would take over the year after, hypothetically. But, you know, that probably wouldn't work out. Let's say Hunter Dickinson does leave after this one year at Kansas. Then you're looking at Flory Badunga. If he just goes to the class 2024, he comes in with the potential to be a one and done. That would be, I'm sure, his expectation from his camp and everything and you would feel like i mean right now k doesn't have the the successor plan to hunter dickinson that he would come out and be the starting center in 2024 um and obviously with him in a 60 or duane harris at that point you feel like that would be a pretty lethal combination of pick and roll and it doesn't really prevent you from you know

bringing on other recruits at that point at the center position if he is going to be a one and done who are either future guys uh but it probably would impact you bringing on at that point you wouldn't be bringing on like another hunter dickinson type player because he would be your hunter dickinson type player for 2024 as far as an impact center to come in right away so that would be the impact how he'd fit in with the team obviously this is a must take this uh you know take any way you can get any year, whether it's this year reclassifying or next year in 2024, and you figure out the rest later if he does want to commit for the final verdict there. But that'll do it, though, for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks, deep dive on Flory Badunga.

We're going to try to get to an Arthur Columa deep dive in the week. We'll try to do a Julian Phillips one. We'll have some conversation on Kevin McCuller, the NBA drafts, kind of process is really kicking up here with the combine getting going from Tuesday to Thursday. So we'll see measurements. We'll see different physical workout stuff. We'll see some of the scrimmage stuff, and that could impact who comes back, who stays in the draft, what options are available to Kansas.

So we'll get into some of those player deep dives throughout the week and decisions to be made, all that stuff upcoming later this week with Locked on Jayhawks. You can find us wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can also like and subscribe to us on YouTube. Have a good rest of your day. See you next time with LOJ.