Flory Bidunga recruiting decision: Kokomo star set to commit Saturday. Winds of change?
Kokomo star Flory Bidunga has a deadline for his college announcement.
The 6-9 Bidunga, the No. 4 prospect in the 2024 class on the 247Sports composite list, will make his decision Saturday night from a finalist list of Auburn, Duke, Kansas and Michigan.
Bidunga is in Atlanta to play in the Under Armour Elite 24 three-day camp, which culminates with the game at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU. Kokomo coach John Peckinpaugh confirmed Bidunga plans to make his announcement at halftime of the game.
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A primer for the announcement:
Bidunga’s high school career
The school that gets a commitment from Bidunga will be receiving a player who has improved dramatically since arriving at Kokomo at the start of his sophomore year from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Bidunga averaged 17.5 points, 13.3 rebounds and 5.3 blocked shots as a sophomore, shooting 79% from the field and leading the Wildkats to a surprising run to the Class 4A semistate and a 19-8 record. As a junior, he was even more dominant and well-rounded. Bidunga averaged 20.2 points, 13.8 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots per game, shooting 81% from the field for a team that went 24-5 and played in the Class 4A state finals.
After his junior season, Bidunga was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana. He will go into the season as one of the top contenders for IndyStar Mr. Basketball.
Superlatives and numbers
In 56 high school games, Bidunga has 1,059 career points and 759 rebounds. He owns state records (per Hickory Husker) single-game dunks (11) and consecutive made field goals (32). Bidunga is currently the No. 12 all-time leading scorer at Kokomo. He has 274 career blocked shots and 218 career dunks. His single-game highs are 34 for points, 24 for rebounds and 12 for blocked shots. He has four games of perfect shooting nights with at least 10 field-goal attempts, including 14-for-14 last season vs. Logansport.
Scouting reports
Bidunga’s strengths include his ability to protect the rim on defense, rebound and finish on offense and run the floor. His dramatic improvement also projects well on his work ethic and upside as a prospect. Bidunga has also performed well against other top national competition.
From Jamie Shaw of On3sports: “He is an excellent shot-blocker, both on the ball and from the weak side. He has natural timing and can get up the square quickly, even through contact. Bidunga runs the floor quickly and purposefully. He can push the break with his handle but does not get too deep and out of control. The jump shot extends to about 10 feet, so we would like to see him work on stretching that out some. But he has touch as a roll man to finish with floaters and short corner jumpers.”
From Eric Bossi of 247Sports: “Bidunga is continuing to fill out and as a guy who already played much stronger than his frame, actual strength to go along with his explosive athleticism and dunk any and everything mentality made him a load. Yes, he had his share of dunks but what really stands out is that he’s adding more offensively. He’s not Tim Duncan in the post (who is?), but he’s making some reads out of double teams, spins and using fakes that he didn’t have this time last year or even four or five months ago. While he’s able to play much bigger than his size, the added game is really going to help him out in the long term.”
Recruitment
Bidunga cut his list of offers to a finalist list of Auburn, Duke, Kansas and Michigan last month. All four of those programs had head coaches watching Bidunga through July. Duke came in later than the other three, but received an official visit in June. He has been on campus at all four of his finalists.
Predictions
Where will Bidunga land?
Well, well, well. The recruiting winds of change might be blowing in a different direction than they were a few days ago.
The predictions on Bidunga’s landing spot reflect those sentiments. Mid-week, almost all of the national and regional recruiting reporters making predictions on Bidunga’s choice picked Duke. I wrote this: Rivals national recruiting insider Rob Cassidy entered a FutureCast prediction Tuesday for Duke. All seven predictions at Rivals for Bigunda since June are for the Blue Devils. All three predictions on 247sports for Bidunga are for Duke. The recruiting prediction for machine for On3sports also favors Duke at 82.3% and Shaw predicting a Duke commitment.
But now? It is possible that the decision of Cooper Flagg to reclassify from the 2025 class to the 2024 class caused ripples that made their way to Bidunga. Flagg, now the No. 1-ranked player in the 2024 class, has visited Duke and expressed his desire to play for the Blue Devils.
Meanwhile, three Duke insiders have entered “crystal ball” picks on 247sports for Bidunga – all for Auburn. All three did so late Friday afternoon. Cassidy, the national recruiting insider for Rivals, also flipped his pick to Auburn. So, too, did five others from Rivals.
We’ll find out for sure tonight.
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Flory Bidunga recruiting: Is it Duke, Kansas, Auburn or Michigan?
