2024 five-star center, Flory Bidunga, drops Kentucky from consideration

The 2024 basketball recruiting class as a whole is not one of the strongest to ever come through, but Flory Bidunga is the exception. The 6’9″ center out of Indiana (originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo) is the consensus top center of 2024 and On3’s No. 4 overall prospect.

Kentucky’s recruitment of Bidunga sounds like a bad case of modern online dating. Not even two weeks ago after the Pangos All-American game where he earned Co-Most Outstanding Player, Bidunga spoke to KSR about his desire to set up an official visit with Kentucky. Unfortunately, timing and schedules never seemed to align.

“We’re trying to figure out a date for a visit, they’ve been busy with their offseason stuff, and me too,” Bidunga told KSR. “We’re going to find a day, and so far, so good. I have a really good relationship with the coaches, I love Coach (John) Calipari and Coach Orlando (Antigua). They’re always there for me.”

Much like online dating, though, no matter how much you might be interested in someone if you can never set up a time to actually meet in person, you have to move on. This was the case with Flory Bidunga and Kentucky, as after multiple failures to secure a visit, KSR’s Jack Pilgrim reports Bidunga informed the coaching staff this week he will be dropping the ‘Cats from consideration.

Instead, Bidunga will give the official visit he originally slotted for Kentucky to Duke instead. Now, the Blue Devils are the trending favorite land and the services of the most dominant player in the 2024 class.

In recruiting, you win some and lose some, but this one sounds like a self-inflicted miss. Sure, Kentucky has had its hands full trying to lock down players for 2023, but it may have come at the expense of at least one player in 2024.