Kansas guard Tre White (3) fires up the Kansas student section during the second half on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Tre White is rejoining the Kansas men’s basketball team, KU announced on Friday afternoon.

The Dallas native had the most productive season of his collegiate career during the 2025-26 campaign with the Jayhawks. Now, after earning an injunction against the NCAA in Monroe County, Indiana, court on Wednesday for a fifth year of eligibility, he is headed back to Lawrence.

“When the opportunity presented itself to go back to college, he wanted to come back to KU, and we welcomed that,” head coach Bill Self said in a statement. “He pursued this on his own, which shows he wants to be here.”

White, who once committed to KU early in his high school career, began his time in college basketball by playing one season each at USC, Louisville and Illinois.

He then started every game as a forward for the Jayhawks during the 2025-26 season and averaged 13.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while shooting a career-best 40.3% from deep. White was a key component of KU’s offense, particularly during periods of time when guard Darryn Peterson was unable to play.

“He brings experience, but he also brings talent, leadership, depth, and competition in practice every day,” Self said.

After the season, White went undrafted and put together a strong stint in the NBA Summer League with the Miami Heat, and had even been photographed in recent days training at the gym with members of the team. But on Sept. 14, he became one of 89 new plaintiffs added to an existing lawsuit in Indiana. Those plaintiffs generally consist of members of the high school class of 2022 who played four consecutive seasons of a given sport and then exhausted their eligibility, only for the NCAA to announce a new five-year eligibility model soon afterward.

It is worth noting that even with KU’s announcement, White’s continued eligibility is far from assured. Judge Kara E. Krothe granted the plaintiffs a temporary injunction that lasts until their lawsuit against the NCAA actually goes to trial. It’s not clear when that might be, but in the meantime, the NCAA has already filed both an emergency motion for a stay of the injunction within Krothe’s court as well as an appeal of the ruling in the Court of Appeals of Indiana. The terms of the injunction do prevent White or KU from being punished for adding him to the roster. Self said White “is eligible to come to campus and practice, and hopefully play in games.”

In any case, White is believed to be the first player this offseason to have regained eligibility via a court case to join a KU sports team. The KU football team has been linked to one plaintiff in the Indiana lawsuit, and KU women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider acknowledged that he considered both bringing players back from last season and adding new options. But at least publicly, no team has followed through until today.

The addition of White gives KU 15 total players, 14 of whom count toward the 15-player roster limit. White’s past teammate Melvin Council Jr. recently had his own injunction hearing in the state of New York and could be a candidate to rejoin the Jayhawks if his legal efforts are successful, but his is a different sort of case that relies not on the five-year rule but junior-college eligibility considerations.

From an on-court perspective, the return of White brings some interesting strategic questions to a KU roster that had remained stagnant since the late spring. He gives the Jayhawks a third returning player along with center Paul Mbiya and wing Kohl Rosario, with much more experience than either. His arrival creates a bit of a logjam on the wing with players like Rosario, Radford transfer Dennis Parker Jr. and Luke Barnett. It’s possible that the addition of White combined with the ongoing injury recovery of center Christian Reeves could lead Self to give additional consideration to small-ball lineups with Utah transfer forward Keanu Dawes at center.