Wednesday afternoon, a small group of local reporters caught up with Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self to talk about everything from Tre White’s return to the state of the roster to the state of college sports in general.
As much as he could, Self cleared up the situation surrounding White and point guard Melvin Council Jr., both of whom recently received injunctions against the NCAA to become eligible for the 2026-27 season.
White’s already here and practicing. And as soon as he begins his eight-week classes in early October, he’ll be an official part of KU’s roster.
Council is not here yet and is not guaranteed to be.
Self said early Wednesday afternoon that he had yet to talk to Council’s team about next steps but that he planned to and that he would be open to take back his point guard from last season if the money and everything else works out for both sides.
While some of those answers require both sides to play a bit of a waiting game and remain in flux — most notably regarding any further appeal action by the NCAA against the current rulings — Self had already begun thinking about what having both back would mean for the 2026-27 team.
Yes, they bring experience and scoring and toughness and an understanding of what it means to play at Kansas. Beyond that, though, they both invite the potential for KU to tinker with some smaller-than-normal lineups this season.
“I think Tre White is a 3/4,” Self explained. “I think you play the same way with him as you do with Keanu (Dawes) or Tyran (Stokes) out there or whatever. So, I don’t think we’ll have to play a lot different. Where we could play different is if we play small. And that could be kind of fun.”
Regardless of how small Self is talking — and there are a lot of guards and wings who could factor into that equation — he already has one lineup strategy locked and loaded.
“The whole thing is, I want to play four perimeter players at least,” he said. “Three point guards could play together. That’d be OK with me.”
When he says three point guards, he’s not necessarily talking in the traditional sense. For instance, while most KU fans probably think of smaller point guards like Jacque Vaughn, Aaron Miles, Russell Robinson, Devon Dotson and Dajuan Harris Jr. when they think about that position, Self has started to think about a player who stands 6-foot-8, 240 pounds being added to the list.
That’s Stokes, of course, and Self said Wednesday that the five-star freshman who has been talked about as the potential No. 1 pick in next summer’s NBA draft can play all five positions on the floor — 1 through 5.
“I think he’s positionless,” said Self of Stokes, who he already has praised for his vision, passing, IQ and court awareness.
“He’s ridiculously bright,” Self added of Stokes. “I think he can play with more of an edge, but he’s got the right mindset.”
And because of that, he could be out there with any other four players on the KU roster.
“The whole thing is, I want to play four perimeter players at least. ... I don’t think we’ll have to play a lot different. Where we could play different is if we play small. And that could be kind of fun.”
— KU coach Bill Self on the outlook for the upcoming college hoops season
Back to that small look, Self said it likely would include having Stokes, Dawes and White out there as KU’s three big guys, presumably with some combination of Council, Taylen Kinney, Leroy Blyden Jr. and a few others.
“And then you could play who’s the 5 man, multiple 5s, however you want to do it to create some mismatches and stuff, which would be kind of fun,” Self said.
In that scenario, all five guys can run the floor, play on or off the ball, shoot from the outside and create for others.
The one big question?
“If we play small, we gotta get a lot tougher rebounding the ball for sure,” Self said.
Self said he and his staff have not yet come close to narrowing down a starting five, which makes sense given the fact that he’s still adding pieces to the roster. He also said they’ll only do so when they determine what their best lineup looks like.
“If our best team plays small, you better think about it, because you won’t play the same way probably,” he said. “But if our best team has a true 5 man then right now it’d be Paul (Mbiya) or Christian (Reeves); that would be the only two options.”
There could be a third option, but it might be a bit of a long shot, for several reasons.
College basketball analysts recently connected former Purdue big man Trey Kaufman-Renn to Kansas as another former college player looking to use legal channels to take advantage of a fifth year of eligibility.
If there is mutual interest there as some have suggested, and if adding the 6-9, 240-pound big man, known by many as TKR, is something Self and the KU staff would explore, a lot of it could come down to what happens with White in the next week or so.
If things remain as expected with White and he begins classes when those 8-week courses open in early October, he would become the 14th scholarship player on KU’s roster, leaving room for just one more to get to the max of 15 per year.
Even if someone on the current roster were to leave, it would not open up an additional scholarship spot. Once an athlete begins classes or receives an NIL check, he or she becomes locked onto that roster for the entire 2026-27 school year.
Using that 15th spot for Council and Kaufman-Reen create different advantages, but it’s awfully hard to picture KU passing on bringing back the heartbeat of last year’s team as long as Council is eligible and wants to return, as his recent social media posts and past pro-KU comments suggest.
“When (Council and White) started talking to us about the possibility (of returning for this season), it was on them to decide what they wanted to do, and then it was on us to decide if we want these kids back,” Self said Wednesday. “And there’s no doubt that we’ll be loyal to those guys.
“Now Melvin, everybody knows how much he loves it here. But the bottom line is, there’s been no talks on a deal being done with Mel. You gotta talk a lot of different factors before it’d be done, money and all that stuff. So Tre, we could handle that, and Melvin, who knows how it’ll play out.”
If it does in fact lead both of them back to a locker in Lawrence, Kansas, they could become key pieces of a KU team that plays small, fast and fun.
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