What Kansas Basketball’s Starting Lineup Could Look Like if Tre White Returned

All offseason long, Kansas basketball fans have been formulating ways to get Melvin Council Jr. back on the roster for one more season with the Jayhawks. He filed a lawsuit against the NCAA last month, but his case doesn't appear to be in great shape with the organization now fighting back against his appeal.

Yet what if KU's returning starter from last season wasn't Council, but rather Tre White? That's what many people seem to think amid the NCAA's ongoing eligibility fiasco, which has granted Class of 2022 athletes a temporary injunction.

We'll get into whether any of this is actually plausible further down in the article, but why not let Jayhawk fans dream? A starting lineup with White in it would look really, really good.

Potential Starting Lineup: Leroy Blyden Jr., Tyran Stokes, Tre White, Keanu Dawes, Paul Mbiya

At first glance, there's a lot of size in this lineup. Maybe even too much, yet it actually works quite well.

The star of the show would obviously be Stokes, the No. 1 recruit in this year's freshman class. He may be 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, but his versatile skill set allows him to operate as a point forward and secondary ball handler alongside Blyden.

White would give KU a true 3-and-D wing who can space the floor, rebound at a high level, and take on the opposing team's best offensive player. Meanwhile, Dawes would bring a different element as a high-flying, all-around forward who could get Allen Fieldhouse on its feet countless times with his thunderous dunks.

The Jayhawks could even move away from a traditional center and slide Dawes to the five if they need more ball handling on the floor, slotting in Taylen Kinney over Mbiya. Dawes has been one of Power 5 basketball's best rebounders over the past two years, and Bill Self clearly isn't afraid to go small. The Jayhawks let KJ Adams start at center throughout the 2022-23 season when he averaged fewer than five rebounds per game.

Can Tre White Be Deemed Eligible by the NCAA?

White played at four different colleges across four seasons but never redshirted or competed at another level, which would make him eligible for the blanket waiver if the court injunction passes through the courts.

The biggest question is whether his time in the NBA Summer League affects that eligibility. However, Locked On Jayhawks podcast host Derek Johnson recently claimed that his Exhibit 10 deal with Miami was agreed to verbally but never signed on paper. Signing an Exhibit 10 deal is supposed to make a player immediately ineligible, but Johnson says White never did so.

That information hasn't been confirmed by any major outlets, so caveat emptor applies to anyone choosing to believe it. For now, the entire situation remains unclear, as does his willingness to return to Lawrence after his strong showing in the Summer League.

Still, if everything falls into place and he makes his way back to KU, Jayhawk fans could be in for a special season with White in the lineup.

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