KOKOMO – After officially signing his letter of intent and before starting practice with his Kokomo High School teammates Thursday afternoon, new Kansas recruit Flory Bidunga spoke briefly on the phone with his future college coach.

“Are you happy?” Kansas coach Bill Self could be overheard asking the 6-9 Kokomo star.

Self could not see Bidunga’s bright smile through the phone, but it lit up Memorial Gym. Bidunga signed his letter of intent on the second day of the early signing period in front of a small gathering of friends and teammates, the latter who enjoyed the intricately-decorated blue and yellow KU cookies before starting practice.

The 6-9 Bidunga, ranked on the 247Sports composite as the No. 6 prospect in the country in the 2024 class, committed to Kansas in August, surprising recruiting prognosticators who believed he would pick Duke or Auburn.

“It was the right feeling for me,” Bidunga said of Kansas. “I’ve been there one time and I was feeling pretty good — I didn’t want to leave but I had to. The coaching the staff, Bill Self, I really like him. (Assistant coach Jeremy) Case, he’s the one who recruited me, is a pretty good dude … if I feel like I have something to say, I can talk to him.”

Top in-state seniors: Flory Bidunga checks in at No. 1 on Kyle's rankings

More: Mr. Basketball favorite Flory Bidunga is Indiana's most unlikely soccer player

Bidunga came to Kokomo more than two years ago as an international student from the Congo, an unknown raw basketball prospect with a lot to learn. A little more than 27 months later, he is inarguably the most well-known high school basketball player in the state and a frontrunner for this year’s Mr. Basketball award.

“I think it comes back to being so coachable,” Kokomo coach John Peckinpaugh said of the Bidunga’s rise in basketball. “Not too many kids are like this but if you correct one thing, he doesn’t make that mistake again. And that was when his English was not great. And I don’t speak English that well and definitely don’t speak French. For him to learn by watching me demonstrate things and pick up things so quickly, that’s when I realized this kid has something special here.”

Bidunga will leave Kokomo with many program records. He has 1,059 career points, 759 rebounds, 274 blocked shots and 218 dunks. Last season, leading Kokomo to a 24-5 record and the Class 4A state finals — a 53-41 loss to Ben Davis — Bidunga averaged 20.2 points, 13.8 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots, while shooting (and dunking) 80.7% from the field.

While there was some level of expectation for success during his sophomore year at Kokomo, the accolades and boom in recruitment that followed went beyond his imagination.

“Not at all, I would say,” he said. “I’m a hard worker. But I think the expectation of going that high, I didn’t have it. … It’s exciting.”

It will be almost a totally different situation for Bidunga going into this season with several seniors from last year’s state finalists gone to graduation. Peckinpaugh pulled his star aside recently and told him he needs to be ready to be made an example of in practice.

Bidunga joked he is already accustomed to that role.

“The language barrier was the hardest thing (at first),” he said. “But right now, I’m pretty good at (English). I feel like I can understand everything.”

Kansas has the fourth-ranked class in the country in 2024 with Bidunga as the highest-ranked of the three-player group. He will be joined by 6-4 point guard Labaron Philon of Link Academy in Branson, Mo. (ranked No. 27 by 247Sports) and 6-5 shooting guard Rakease Passmore of Combine Academy in Charlotte (ranked No. 48).

Peckinpaugh said Self’s vision of Bidunga’s future role was what helped separate the Jayhawks in the recruiting process.

“I think he did a really, really good job of laying out, ‘This is what we’re going to do to get you to the next level,’” Peckinpaugh said. “A lot of it was just being brutally honest of things he needed to work on. When I first started talking to Flory about college I told him, ‘You want to go play for the guy who is going to tell you the truth. Not the guy who tells you how great you are.’ Coach Self was really good about being honest and saying, ‘Hey, you might be a top-five player in the country but you still have a long way to go to play at the next level.’ I think he appreciated that. They have a detailed plan for him and how they are going to get him there.”

Bidunga said he is already watching Kansas play this season, trading messages with his future coaches about what he sees in the court and, in particular, Hunter Dickinson’s role. Now that his signature is officially on the dotted line, he is one step closer to being a Jayhawk.

“I’m officially part of the Jayhawk family,” Bidunga said. “That’s exciting.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Basketball recruiting: Flory Bidunga signs with Kansas Jayhawks