By now, you’ve all heard the stories about how Tre White committed to Kansas as a sophomore in high school but never made it to KU until his senior season of college basketball, after making stops at USC, Louisville and Illinois before coming to Lawrence.
And there are going to be several moments throughout the upcoming season where it makes sense to reference that again and again.
For instance, when White scores his 12th point of the season, he’ll officially join the Jayhawks’ 1,000-point club and it will only be natural to wonder if he envisioned himself scoring all 1,000 of those points at KU at one point in his life.
Or, when he plays non-conference games at home against UConn, in Chapel Hill at North Carolina and in New York City against Duke, he’ll talk, like so many others have before him, about how guys come to Kansas to play in games like that.
A full-circle season is the way White describes what’s ahead, and that officially starts Friday night, when White finally gets to attend Late Night in the Phog.
Shortly after committing to KU back in 2019, White, who, at that time, was a 5-star prospect in the high school class of 2022, made it known that he was dying to get to Late Night and that he would be there that year.
It never happened. It still hasn’t. And that’s at least part of what has White so excited for the official start of the 2025-26 Kansas basketball season, which already has been under way in the practice gym for a few weeks now.
“It’s the same feeling, honestly,” he said of his anticipation today compared to what he felt in 2019 as a high school sophomore. “That’s why I’m excited, to be going into this big, unknown, lit environment with high-flying athletes, I feel like a little kid.”
White is anything but that, in fact. When he committed, rosters had him listed at 6-foot-5, 175 pounds, and some even called him a point guard.
Today, he stands 6-7, 215, and he’s in line to start at the 4 for the Jayhawks this season. Even with that frame and nearly 100 games of college basketball now under his belt, White is still on the brink of experiencing a first that not all college players get to enjoy.
For years, Late Night has been known as one of the marquee season-tipoff events in all of college hoops, and White explained why he always viewed it that way and still does today.
“It’s the history, being such a prestigious school, a blue blood, all that,” he said. “Growing up, I always heard about the history, everybody getting drafted, all the winning, so when you see little clips of Late Night it’s just little spurts of high energy and stuff like that, and you don’t really know how it feels until you’re in it. I know it’s gonna be sold out, I know it’s gonna be fun and we’re gonna compete, too.”
Friday can't come soon enough pic.twitter.com/O0wVIZ5SFL
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) October 14, 2025
KU coach Bill Self has long been skeptical of making too many definitive reads about what we see during the Late Night scrimmage.
And that will remain the case until he’s no longer coaching.
But Self said Wednesday that he still anticipates it being a fun night and he even talked a little about how the event has changed in recent years.
Throughout most of Self’s time at Kansas, Late Night was the night for recruiting elite talent. Some of the best players in college basketball history — whether they became Jayhawks or not — were sitting behind the Kansas bench at Late Night, made a priority on the biggest recruiting night on the calendar.
It was not uncommon to have multiple five-star talents attend Late Night, and KU battled with Duke and Kentucky to try to get their top targets to come to Kansas for the season tipoff spectacular instead of similar events at those other blue blood programs.
This weekend, Self said Wednesday that KU has just one official visitor scheduled to attend.
“It’s obviously a big, big recruiting deal,” he began. “But it’s not as big, I don’t think, in many ways, as what it has been in the past. It’s a good weekend. But, it seemed like in the past we had one recruiting weekend to really bring guys in and showcase our place. Now, I feel like it’s not so important to have it all that one weekend.”
Such is life in college basketball these days, with the transfer portal calendar carrying more weight than anything.
But, at least for a few hours on Friday night, Late Night will still mean everything to the players and fans who attend.
That includes five-star phenom Darryn Peterson and Mr. White, as well.
“I’m so excited,” Peterson said at KU’s media day earlier this week. “This is my first time on that court with a packed-out arena and people (are coming) to see us, so I’m gonna try to put on a show for everybody.”
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
