Kansas University basketball recruiting

It may have taken a while for the Kansas men’s basketball program to fill its 2019 recruiting class, but the Jayhawks are off to headstart in the Class of 2022.

Tre White, a top-talent guard at Washington High in Milwaukee, on Sunday orally committed to Kansas, a move that was confirmed on Twitter by White’s AAU program, Mac Irvin Fire. The tweet included a typo, calling White a member of the Class of 2020 instead of 2022.

Originally from Little Elm, Texas, White committed to KU without visiting, largely on the strength of his love of KU coach Bill Self and assistant coach Jerrance Howard.

“Coach Howard is my guy and has been my guy,” White told Shay Wildeboor of JayhawkSlant.com. “He’s been to a lot of my games and he was just on me early. He’s been watching me develop and watching me grow as a player and he likes that.

A 6-foot-5, 175-pound point guard with a wide variety of skills, White chose KU over offers from Illinois, Texas Tech, Auburn and a dozen other schools showing serious interest.

KU’s status as one of the first schools to show interest played a big role with White.

“Kansas has just always been on me early and I just feel like Kansas is the best fit for me,” he told Wildeboor. “They always show love and they still do.”

That also played a role in White committing and effectively ending his recruitment before the start of his sophomore year of high school.

“I just really wanted to get my recruitment out of the way,” he told Wildeboor. “I wanted to get my recruitment out of the way and focus on building my game for the next couple of years. Kansas, you know, they offered me a long time ago, so I was ready to commit.”

Although it’s rare for a player to commit to any program so early — especially a 5-star prospect who figures to be one of the most highly recruited players in his class — it is not unheard of. Just a few years ago, KU received an early commitment from Chicago point guard Markese Jacobs, who eventually wound up signing with DePaul. Jacobs, however, was a 3-star point guard who committed to KU after visiting Late Night in the Phog during his sophomore season of high school.

White is the first player to commit to Kansas beyond the 2019 class, which actually still has one scholarship still available. KU coach Bill Self previously told the Journal-World it would have to be a “no-brainer” for the Jayhawks to use that 13th and final scholarship in the current class.

Congrats to 2020 5Star G Tre White on his commitment to Kansas!! #Big12 #MacIrvinFire

— Mac Irvin Fire (@TheMacIrvinFire) June 23, 2019