Bill Self provides the latest injury update on Flory Bidunga

Flory Bidunga, the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from Kokoma (IN) High School, was well on his way to having a career night against UNCW on Tuesday night. In seven minutes of action, Bidunga, KU’s five-star freshman, scored six points and pulled down two rebounds.

Offensively, Bidunga was 3-of-3 from the field and was on pace to dunk himself to a career-high in points.

However, Bidunga went down with an ankle injury in the first half and never returned. In fact, Bidunga didn’t make his way back to KU’s bench until the 11:00 mark of the second half.

Bill Self, who won game No. 800 on Tuesday night, provided the latest update on Bidunga minutes after the game.

“Yeah, I don’t think he should have played, but in a big game where maybe you didn’t have another game coming up immediately after, he could have been back out there probably,” said Self on Tuesday night. “So, he’ll be off of it a day or two, but hopefully be practicing by Friday.

“No, it was his ankle,” he added. (It was) his ankle.”

Kansas, without question, avoided what could have been a devastating injury on Tuesday night. Through five games, Bidunga is averaging 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. In appearing in all five games, he’s connected on 82.6 percent (19-of-23) of his field goals and 50 percent (4-of-8) of his free throws.

With a big game against Duke scheduled for November 26 in Las Vegas, Self, shortly after winning game No. 800, provided a breakdown of the schedule for the rest of the week.

Thankfully for Self, Kansas should arrive in Las Vegas next week with fresh bodies.

Against UNCW, just one player, Hunter Dickinson, logged 30 minutes. In all, KU’s All-American big man scored 15 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Overall, Dickinson was 7-of-11 from the field, 0-of-1 from behind the arc, and 1-of-3 from the free-throw line.

Dajuan Harris (17 points, three rebounds, six assists, one turnover, and two steals) played 29 minutes, while KJ Adams (three points, five rebounds) logged 29 minutes as well.

Two just other players, Zeke Mayo (25 minutes) and AJ Storr (22 minutes), played more than 20 minutes. Mayo tallied 10 points, two rebounds, two assists, one turnover, one steal, and one block, while Storr added seven points, one rebound, one assist, and one turnover.

“We’re going to take tomorrow off and then we’ll practice Thursday and Friday hard and then light, very light, probably on Saturday,” said Self. “Then (we’ll) practice Sunday and Monday. So I haven’t watched Duke yet, but we will have a great game to watch ’em against the quality opponent obviously with Kentucky and then they play at Arizona on Friday.

“So we’ll have two games where we will have a pretty good book on them just like they’ll have a pretty good book on us I would think by Tuesday.