After transferring from Michigan in 2023, Hunter Dickinson became the face of Kansas basketball for two underwhelming seasons. Now, Dickinson has run out of eligibility and Bill Self will need a new centerpiece in the front court and despite testing the waters in the trnasfer portal, that player is staying put in Lawrence.
Flory Bidunga has reportedly signed a deal with Kansas to withdraw his name from the transfer portal and return to the Jayhawks for his sophomore season in 2025-26.
Jayhawk Nation, let’s run it back 🔴🔵 pic.twitter.com/5OxAjlD3qL
— Flory Bidunga (@FBidunga) April 6, 2025
Flory Bidunga returns to Kansas after testing transfer portal
A 2024 five-star recruit, Flory Bidunga played 16.3 minutes a game off the bench for the Jayhawks last season and provided plenty of energy when spelling Dickinson. While his offensive game isn’t nearly as refined, as a freshman Bidunga was an efficient scorer with a 69.8% effective field goal percentage, a big-time rebounder, and a defensive anchor with a 10.8% block rate.
At 6-foot-9 with an impressive wingspan, Bidunga is a disruptive player who makes an impact on both ends with his motor and athleticism. His style is much different from Dickinson's, who preferred to have the ball in his hands and often operated a slow-paced offensive attack from the post or the top of the key. Instead, Bidunga will thrive in a starting role as a roll-man and lob threat with serious gravity as a rim-runner in the half-court and transition.
Bidunga will be an important piece of next year’s Jayhawks, though the team will likely be fashioned around five-star freshman and the No. 2 player in the 2025 high school class, Darryn Peterson. The 6-foot-5 Napa, California native projects as a big-time scorer for his one-and-done stop in Self’s program, and as long as the rest of the pieces fit around him, Kansas should return to contending for Big 12 titles next season.
Houston has grabbed the crown in the Big 12 and has a chance to win its first national title on Monday night in San Antonio. Meanwhile, in the newly expanded conference, Kansas finished sixth with a pedestrian 11-9 conference record. Self needs to deliver a counter-punch and keeping Bidunga in place gives him his best chance to make it hurt.
Since his 2022 national championship, Self has yet to advance back past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Expectations are always high in Lawrence, but with Bidunga and Peterson as the foundational pieces of his program in 2025-26, the Jayhawks have a good chance of meeting them.