Kansas guard Tre White (3) addresses the crowd during the senior speeches following the Jayhawks’ 104-85 win over the Wildcats on Saturday, March 7, 2026 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Newly eligible via an injunction in the state of Indiana, Kansas forward Tre White says he’s coming back to the Jayhawks with a chip on his shoulder.

He wants to win, to demonstrate his own improvement, to lead the team — he has “a chip to win a chip,” as he put it.

“Being grateful, being that leader now, being in a different position, learning all the things that I learned this summer, you know, I won’t take none of this for granted,” White said on Thursday, “and I’m grateful to put it on the court.”

White thought his college career was over when the Jayhawks lost to St. John’s back in March. If it truly had been, it would have ended with the 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward having played each of his four seasons at a different school.

His year at KU, after stints at USC, Louisville and Illinois, was the best of the bunch. Playing for a school to which he had once committed as a high school underclassman, White grew beyond his previous production to average 13.5 points on a career-best 40.3% 3-point shooting along with 6.7 rebounds.

He then proved that wasn’t a fluke by posting similar numbers with the Miami Heat in the NBA Summer League: 17.3 points and 5.8 rebounds with 40.0% shooting beyond the arc. Along the way, he said, he improved in terms of “quicker decisions, less is more, leading, preparation, doing things before the catch, observing when you’re not playing, things of that nature.”

“With the little time I was there, I did learn a lot of tricks and preparation and habits with one of the most hardworking teams in the NBA,” White said.

And now, in the sort of left turn possible only in 2026, he’s bringing them back to college.

He took his time before, on Sept. 14, joining the Indiana lawsuit that would eventually earn him his eligibility, and let his agents handle the situation in the meantime: “Really, I didn’t even want to pay attention to any of that until I felt like it was a little bit more clear. It was a lot of denying and accepting going on, stuff like that.”

The result is that for the first time in his career he will spend consecutive seasons at the same school. And indeed, he said he never wanted to hit the portal or consider another program.

“That was definitely a huge factor for me coming back, learning more trust with my coaches, more trust within me,” White said.

Self, who has now had several weeks with White back at practice, has said that the game appears to be easier for his player than it was previously. And White said he hasn’t found it too difficult to integrate himself into the newest edition of the Jayhawks: “With the new world of transferring and stuff like that, you kind of learn to adapt every year.”

“It’s the same plays, same concepts, we tweak stuff here and there, little actions in it, but it’s the same type of concepts, same mentality, so I’m ready,” White said.

The big question is whether both sides will actually be able to reap the benefits of a fifth season. The NCAA is in the process of appealing the Indiana injunction, which also contains recently added KU football players Chase Belcher and Clifton Thompson. And the association has obtained some favorable rulings of late in other five-year eligibility cases around the country.

Chances are that White, Melvin Council Jr. and now Trey Kaufman-Renn, who each have their own distinct cases, will endure some sorts of challenges to their status this season, although all are currently eligible.

“Is it concerning, absolutely, but if we lose sleep over this nightly because we’re worried about something that we have absolutely no control over, we’re worried about the wrong things,” Self said, prior to adding Kaufman-Renn, of potential eligibility issues. “That would be like going to bed every night worried about somebody getting hurt every day.”