Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SUPER SOPHOMORE BREAKOUT: Flory Bidunga Set for Year 2 Jump Like Cole Aldrich & Udoka Azubuike

Starting point is 00:00:00 Similar to KU Great's Cole Aldridge and Udoca Azabouca, Flory Bedunga is set up for a huge jump in year two as a sophomore from Kansas, and boy, do the Jayhawks need it. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on? Derek Johnson here. This is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. And thank you to the everydayers catching each and every episode of the show. We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of LOJ, we're talking Flory Budunga, why he's set up for a big jump in his sophomore season, similar to to past Bill Self. Big Man, we'll also get into a little bit of who else needs. to take a big jump from their level of play from a previous season for Kansas to be successful this year. Certainly they need it from Flory as well. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase with Game Time. So Flore Bidunga had a, I would say successful first season at Kansas. I mean, obviously, in being behind Hunter Dickinson, like it's going to

Starting point is 00:01:26 limit the amount of minutes in your playing time that you end up with. But overall, in year one as a freshman, 16 minutes per game, six points, five and a half rebounds, 1.6 blocks, 0.6 steals on 69.8% from the floor. And there were moments where, you know, there were a couple games this year where I thought Flor Bidungo was KU's best player on the floor. There were moments where he looked like KU's most talented player, which probably was the most talented on last year's team. There were other moments where he was raw.

Starting point is 00:01:53 There were other moments where, you know, it was like, okay, I can understand why He is coming off the bench, right? But some of those moments that were really good were really high and were really fun to watch. Like you think of the Houston game that Kansas eventually lost in double overtime, but he was amazing. You think of the UCF game, the one in Orlando where he has the ridiculous like steel and take it the other way and dunk it down. He is a special prospect and player that Kansas has playing the center position. And so now in year two, Hunter Dickinson graduates, there are more minutes to be had. KJ Adams is gone.

Starting point is 00:02:28 You don't have, I mean, he is one of the veterans on the team. He is a veteran presence at the big man spot. And KU only has two other big men on the roster. Both are freshmen. Bryson Tiller redshirted, but he was injured. It's not like he was practicing through the redshirt. And Paulumbia is a true freshman for Kansas. So there's a lot on Floribodunga to improve from where he was.

Starting point is 00:02:49 Now, if we just get what he was last season, but in a bigger sample size in a you know, just bigger usage capacity, that's still going to be a really effective player for KU. But obviously, Kansas is hoping he takes a jump in addition to that kind of usage going up as well. And I think he can and will because he is somebody who he seems to work really hard. Like that's always been the story around him that he's been somebody who does work really hard. He is a little bit more raw to the game of basketball, which tells you there is more potential there. There's more to be taught, so to speak. And so I look back to a couple Bill Self Big Men who really had big jumps.

Starting point is 00:03:25 from their freshman to sophomore seasons, specifically guys who were like McDonald's All-Americans, which is the case of Flory, because that matches up with, okay, you came in with this high potential. Now, there'd be other players, too, like the list of Bill Self players in general,

Starting point is 00:03:42 not just Big Men, but that improve from one season to the next to have a breakout season at some point in their career is obviously very long. And if we are just talking Big Men, like, you know, the Morris Twins or, or Jeff Withy or Thomas Robinson from his sophomore to junior year, like Landon Lucas from his like sophomore to junior year. There were players, they're big men, and again, there's guards who did it too,

Starting point is 00:04:06 who are guys that take big leaps, you know, Wayne Selden from his sophomore to junior season. There's so many guys who have, you know, those big jumps, those big leaps from one year to the next with a Bill South team in the Bill South program. but it's most pertinent in here to look at the guys who did it from freshman to sophomore year because that is exactly what Flory Badunga is doing, right? And so Wayne Selden doing it from sophomore to junior year, but also not being a big man, it's not as applicable. So that's where

Starting point is 00:04:37 I think Cole Aldridge and Udoca as a bouquet really come in as model citizens, so to speak, or like examples that you can point to of former All-American Big Men, High School All-American, Donald's All-American, Big Men at Kansas, coming in, maybe not playing as many minutes, as big of a role as they were later going to in their career. And then all of a sudden, you're vaulted into the starting lineup, if I can speak here, by your second year and you're asked to do a lot and you perform and you come through and you're a very productive player and a good player. And in the cases of both those guys, Cole Aldridge and Udo Gassibouki,

Starting point is 00:05:22 Okay, both of them eventually became first-round draft picks. Both of them eventually became All-Americans at Kansas, right? And the interesting part with Doke is that, you know, his limited capacity in his freshman year, that was mostly injury-related. But I guess it technically still counts. I will say, even though it's funny because Doak started, I think he played like 11 games, he started like six or something, but it was still just 13 minutes per game. And Floyd Badunga actually played more minutes per game as a freshman

Starting point is 00:05:52 and then Udoca Azabuque did, even though Doak was like starting half of the time next to Landon Lucas. When you look at Cole Aldridge, he went from somebody who was playing, you know, single digit minutes per game to all of a sudden he's playing close to 30 minutes per game in 09. And so, you know, that's the other beauty of this too is the, I guess the team comparison, because in both those individual cases, like both of those were all big 12 players in Udoca Azabuka and Cole Aldridge in their sophomore seasons. And I think that's the expectation here for Flory this year. But you look at the 09 and the 2018 teams, you know, they were kind of reliant on that center,

Starting point is 00:06:35 taking a big jump for their team to be able to be successful. Because you look at the 09 team and that was all the players from the national championship team. If we're just talking big men, right, you lose Darnell Jackson, Sasha Conn at the center position, Dorell Arthur as a big forward to like, you know, out of necessity, Cole Aldridge had to take on a bigger role. You look at you, Docazabuki, okay, Landon Lucas graduates, Jamari Trailer graduates, right? Like Hunter Mickelson graduates, you're going to have to take on that big role. And like that 2018 team, it just kind of similar to this year's team, didn't have a lot of big man depth.

Starting point is 00:07:10 Like, who were the big men? It was like a young, very young Mitch Lightfoot. It was, was Dwight Colby on that roster maybe? Maybe he was redshirt in that year. I don't know. Carlton Bragg was on the roster. Like that one, similar to this one. that it didn't have a lot of other options.

Starting point is 00:07:23 And the Aldridge one similar to this one in that it's a guy like kind of being forced into the spotlight, but has shown flashes in his freshman year to make you think he's going to be able to handle it in a positive way. And then I think there's some other comparisons too that makes the comparison with Udo Gassibook and Cole Aldridge very interesting with Flory Bedunga because I think it's what makes all those players productive, right? I mean, you're talking about like, I think the comparisons with Flory. and Cole Aldridge are both of them

Starting point is 00:07:53 are really good shop blockers. Both them are good rebounders. Both of them I don't think have, like I think Cole probably has a little bit more on his offensive game than we what we've seen from Flory so far, but maybe that develops a little bit more on you too, but still even then like Cole Aldridge wasn't the Morris twins with his offensive repertoire.

Starting point is 00:08:09 And then when you're looking at the Utokaz Bouquet comparison, you end up with a guy who's like, okay, this is a big man who's going to be super efficient by dunking everything around the rim, right? Doke did it more power. Florey does it with like length than athleticism, but it's the same kind of outcome there.

Starting point is 00:08:27 And I think Florey's a better shot blocker than Doke. Doke, again, bigger and had more size and presence and stuff, but again, both good rebounders and both physically imposing in different ways on the other team who's out there. So I think there's a lot of comparisons we can get to, which is why coming back from the break, we're going to specifically get into the compare and contrast portion for those three parties involved to kind of,

Starting point is 00:08:51 take a look at, I don't know, what could Flory season look like statistically and kind of get a little bit more into this possible year to jump? That is both something that I'm expecting and would be needed for KU basketball for Flory Padunga. Today's episode of Locked on Jayhawks is brought to you by five-hour energy transfusion, baby. Let's be honest, some days on the course or off it or in life, you just need that extra boost to stay up, stay sharp and stay energized. And it's time to fuel up and turn it up with five-hour energy transfusion. It brings the bold grape, ginger, and lime flavor of your favorite golf drink minus the alcohol into a quick energizing shot. Whether you're sinking birdies or just making

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Starting point is 00:10:49 can listen every day. Okay, so what I find really interesting, if we compare, because again, going into this, like, can Florey take as big of a jump as those guys did? Doak was putting up, you know, 13 and 7 a game on a team that makes Final 4 in a year two, Colalder is putting up 15 and 11 in a year two? Is that too much to ask? Well, how about we look at their starting points? So if we look at per 40 numbers, which per 40 numbers, you know, take them with a grain of

Starting point is 00:11:18 salt they can be used for something like this that is good to compare but obviously don't use it as the be all end all like if you're comparing somebody who's playing 32 minutes a game to somebody's playing eight like of course the guy is playing eight's going to come out better in per 40 but all these guys are you know limited role coming off the bench in year one obviously more so you know florrie played more than than the other two guys but it'll get us at least within striking distance so if we look at per 40 numbers of their freshman seasons florrie this year Cole on the 08 championship team and Doak on the 2017 team before he got hurt. Florey's per 40 numbers, 14.4 points, 13.1 rebounds.

Starting point is 00:11:56 Point eight assists, 1.4 steals, about four blocks per game. He averaged five and a half fouls per 40 and then shot 70% from the floor, 53 from the foul line. Yudoka Azabuque, meanwhile, 15 and a half points per game per 40, so little more than Florey, but not much more. 13 and a half rebounds. So again, that's within range. 0.6 assists slightly less there. 0.6 steals, so Florey better getting seals. Interestingly enough, Doak averaged 5.1 blocks per 40 his freshman year.

Starting point is 00:12:22 His career, he finished at 3.4. So he was just on a blocking heater to start his freshman career. But this one's funny. Doak, his freshman year at Kansas, and this is something that I actually find really interesting because one of my big, I don't know, questions, worries, whatever you want to call it for Kansas this season with the lack of big men, the lack of bodies they have down low, is what happens. happens if Florey gets in foul trouble, right? We saw Florey getting foul trouble at times

Starting point is 00:12:47 this season and Florey five and a half fouls per 40 minutes as a freshman. But this is a good reminder. Doak averaged 8.7 fouls per 40 minutes as a freshman. And he wound up being able to figure it out and be okay. So that is encouraging that, you know, Flore can get better at it too. But Doak was 63% on twos, which finished his career at 75%. And then he was only 38% at the foul line. So actually, Florey was better on twos as a freshman than Doak was. Flore is also much better at the free throw line, better at getting steals. Doak was better at blocking shots. Doak fouled too much.

Starting point is 00:13:23 And then the rebounds, the assists, the points are all very similar. What about Cole Aldridge? Cole Aldridge is freshman numbers, the per 40 on the 08 championship team, 13.6 points, 14.4 rebounds. So slightly less scoring, slightly more rebounding, 0.6 assists, 1.3 steals. So those numbers very much in line. 4.1 blocks. that number very much in line with the 3.9 for Florey 5.8 fouls per 40. So I mean,

Starting point is 00:13:48 across the board, very even. Again, you're talking Florey essentially 14 and 13 on one and half steals and four blocks with five and a half fouls. Cole at about 13 and a half, 14 and a half, one and a half steals, four blocks just under six fouls per 40. Very similar per 40 numbers for Cole Aldrin. And that's the one that I actually like the best in terms of player role is the Cole Aldridge one because I've also been kind of comparing the idea of that team to this year's team. I've said the 2020 team from a roster build perspective is a little bit similar to. But I also think some similarities to the 09 team in terms of, hey, you lost a lot from the year before. Now obviously they lost players from a national championship team. This Kansas team

Starting point is 00:14:30 lost players from a team lost in the first round is seven seed. So it's different. But point being there, a lot of players being asked to play a bigger role or a new role for KU that weren't on last year's team are going to be asked to play more on this year's team. And you look at that 09 team for Kansas. Sharon Collins is an all-American guard. That's kind of the expectation for Darren Peterson. Cole Aldridge was an all big 12, you know, double double machine of center. That's kind of the expectation for Flory. And then it's like, hey, we're going to surround it with, we've got some interesting, you know, you have a young Tishon Taylor, which Melvin Council has been kind of comped to, right? And so you have the younger version of him. So maybe it's a better comp to say that than the

Starting point is 00:15:07 version of Taishon that ended up being an All-American and a second round pick in the NBA draft because I don't know that those are the expectations for Melvin Council. So maybe that's the better comparison there. And then you get some other young players or role players kind of around those guys, you know? And from that perspective, it is kind of similar to this year's team. So I do find that interesting that the numbers are similar there. Now, if he follows Doak's path, year two, you doke as a bouquet for Kansas. That again was on the final four team in 2017, 2018. Doak went for 13 points, seven rebounds per game, 1.7 blocks. That was in 23.6 minutes per game.

Starting point is 00:15:41 He dropped his fouls per 40 from 8.7 per 40 to 5.1, and he shot a nation's best 77%. If I told you Florey was going to average 13 and 7, I think the blocks would probably be more than what Doak had there, given that Doak averaged basically the same amount of blocks that Flore did this year as a freshman in, you know, seven more minutes per game. But if I said that Flore average 13 and 7 on 70%, 70% even, you'd probably take that right now and be happy with it, right? And then maybe you'd want more rebounding, but maybe that just gets, you know, notched into because Kansas has a bunch of other good rebounders. That's certainly a good season from Udo Casbook. Now, if he follows Cole Aldridge's path, year two for Cole saw him go for 14.9 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.7 blocks per game.

Starting point is 00:16:30 He was down to three and a half fouls per 40. He shot 60%. Now, this is where I think Cole had a little bit more to his offensive game. So he's being asked to do a little bit more in offense with Florey because it is a little bit less. Maybe you end up with a better efficiency. But he also probably is a little springier than Cole Aldridge. And so you're going to end up with a higher efficiency number. And I do also think even though I think there are some, what is the offensive game?

Starting point is 00:16:55 What's the repertoire? What is the post game going to look like for Flore this year? I do think it's more than. I think he showed more as a freshman than like we saw as a freshman from like Ernest Dudae and Zubi Etchifer. Like I'll say that. Like there were at least moments where he would catch the ball in the block and he would turn or he would, you know, kind of pivot around to get the angle he needed. Like there was more, it wasn't Hunter Dickinson. It wasn't the Morris twins. It wasn't, you know, Dorel Arthur. But like, again, it wasn't some of those really raw guys we saw right

Starting point is 00:17:24 away. So I do think there's more there than you expect. But overall, if Florey has either players sophomore season. Doke or Cole Aldridge. I think KU's going to be happy with that because I would argue that both Doke and Cole Aldridge were top 10 players in the Big 12. And maybe you could argue they were even better. I mean, Cole put up 15 and 11, three blocks per game. I don't know, that might be a top five player in the Big 12, right? Part of it is dependent on what's the town around you. Like that year, you have Blake Griffin and some other good players. But Doak, his sophomore season, was third team all Big 12. So that would tell you as a top 15 player. But also if you go back and look at it, like on the second team was Mo Bamba, which Bamba was getting more blocks per game and the raw numbers for the rebounds were better.

Starting point is 00:18:07 But like, if we're talking who had a bigger impact and like you look at the efficiency numbers compared between them, you're kind of like, especially it's easier now because like, you know, Mo Bamba, it was like, oh, but he's the one and done. Like he's this special probably. And like Mo Bamba hasn't had really a better NBA career than Doke, you know. So realistically, you could argue Doke was a top 10 player in the Big 12th that year. And that was on a loaded KU team. Like, that's part of the thing with awards. It doesn't necessarily indicate who's the most valuable player. It's a good rough draft of it.

Starting point is 00:18:37 But like, when you have shots going to Devante Graham, Malik Numen, Svea, Mikhailuk, and La Gerald Vick, if that's not the case, does Doak average 15 and 10 on that team, right? Where he has to do a little bit more on that team. And then you do end up one of those. So I think he's probably a top 10 player. And honestly, like, I think how teams game planned that KU team for the most part, I think a lot of teams, it was like, Devonte is the top guy we got to try to take away.

Starting point is 00:19:01 Doke is the second guy we got to take away. And in fact, I remember being certain teams where KU would play where they'd be like, yeah, our primary focus is trying to stop dope because he's shooting 77% from the floor. Like that is the primary focus. From a Cole Aldridge perspective, like he was named to, you know, the top big 12 teams. So that is the case. And so I think that if you've ruined it from that perspective, can he be a top 10, top 15 player in the Big 12 this season.

Starting point is 00:19:27 I think Florey can be, which would be quite the compliment if Darren Peterson is the Sharon Collins to go back to that 09 reference. If Darren Peterson is that All-American, all-Bit 12 first team, Big 12 player of the year level guard. That's quite the compliment to have Flory Bedunga.

Starting point is 00:19:42 And I think those guys show quite the path for him that I'm expecting him to take in year two. Who else needs to take a big jump for KU? We get to that next. Today's episode of the show is brought to you by Game Time. We've all been there. Logging on early, waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you've been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping.

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Starting point is 00:20:58 Download the GameTime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guarantee. Thanks for us on this show. Don't forget and check out Locked-on College football or Locked-on College basketball for your second list every day. We're going to be talking, how talented is this KU football roster compared to past rosters? On tomorrow's episode, we're also going to rank every Kansas football game by importance. On Wednesday's show, we'll have our off-ball guard.

Starting point is 00:21:23 It's preview coming up on Thursday for more KU basketball. So stick around with us and we'll get to any breaking news as we see fit as well. So make sure you're subscribe to the show. And even if you only listen on the audio side of things, just hit subscribe on YouTube. It doesn't cause you any like it doesn't download anything. You know, it doesn't cause any extra issues for you. But it certainly helps out on our end of things. Okay, who else needs to take a big, you know, leap this year for Kansas besides Flory?

Starting point is 00:21:50 I think you could look at like if you're talking about guys coming in, like you could talk about certain traits, but it's also a little bit harder because it's like, okay, you're kind of who you are who you are. It's just about how are you going to fit in and how is Bill Self going to make that work? Like you can make the argument though, like Melvin counsel, could you have a jump in three point shooting, you know? If you're talking about like a guy like Cole Rosario, could he make a big jump from just, you know, being a more consistent three point shooter from where he was a season ago. But it's a little bit harder with the guys who are newcomers to the team.

Starting point is 00:22:23 Now, could you make the argument for a guy like Bryson Tiller, right? Does it even count because he didn't get to practice basically taking a medical red shirt with KU? But if you do count it as like, can he improve a bunch, well, that would be certainly helpful for Kansas because it would give them another big man that they can trust. It would give them another body. It would also open up the door to playing too big basketball because Bryson Tiller represents your best opportunity to do that because you can play him at the four and he's very skilled to be able to do so on the offensive end of the floor. And it would give you a ton of length. and wingspan at your four and five position. So that would certainly be one that, you know, I'd be open to hearing about. I think Trey White would be somebody that would be open to hearing about because more kind of a role player on Illinois and he's going to be a role player in a certain sense for Kansas. But I think that's going to be an even bigger role on this Kansas team that it might have been on Illinois last season.

Starting point is 00:23:12 They're going to be asking him to grab and go to be a really, I don't know, switchable foreman to be somebody who is kind of that jack of all trades and can do a little bit of everything for Kansas and can be their Swiss army knife and guard a lot of opposing force. But I think there's one obvious answer to this. And that's El Marco Jackson. El Marco Jackson needs to take some sort of a jump. But I get it. He was out for, you know, the season last year as well, right?

Starting point is 00:23:40 But if we're just talking from his last level of play, he shot 27% for three, struggled with efficiency, game looked like it was going too fast for him. And I've talked about four, thank you that every dayers who already caught the episode of why I think El Marco could be in store. for that breakout season why he could have that big season this year where you know maybe it's not him earning an all big 12 performance because there's other guys kind of in front of him but his impact is felt his impact is there and he's able to make that impact enough so that like you know maybe it's not all big 12 13 but like value wise he's

Starting point is 00:24:14 such a key piece to the team makes you feel like in the future he's going to be the go-to guy you know another year from now but he's kind of the obvious one where it's like you're a former McDonald's All-American, you're such a good athlete, you have maybe some potential to at least be a better three-point shooter than you've shown, which would help this team from their three-point shooting perspective. There's just a lot there and a lot to the notion of like, I think he's going to play. I think Bill Self's going to trust him. He's a good defender that I think he's the guy that you're like, okay, I think he could and I think he needs to take a big jump this year. Maybe not as big of a Florida Badoonga-sized jump, but at least a big enough one. you know, we'll be playing 25 plus minutes per night for KU. That'll know for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:24:59 You can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. We'll see you next time for another edition of LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - SUPER SOPHOMORE BREAKOUT: Flory Bidunga Set for Year 2 Jump Like Cole Aldrich & Udoka Azubuike

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