Six to be honored during KU’s Senior Day festivities before Sunflower Showdown
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas to honor six seniors at Senior Day before 1 p.m. tipoff on CBS.
- Melvin Council leads team in minutes and scoring; transfer from multiple schools
- Walk-ons Cross and Evers have earned degrees and been key teammates
Kansas’ six-man senior class — Melvin Council Jr., Tre White, Jayden Dawson, Gee Ngala, Justin Cross and Wilder Evers — will be honored along with their parents and other loved ones as part of Senior Day festivities prior to Saturday’s Sunflower Showdown men’s basketball game against Kansas State.
Tipoff for the regular-season finale for both teams is 1 p.m., with a live broadcast on CBS.
Here are thumbnail sketches of the honorees who, per KU tradition, are expected to speak to the fans after the game.
Melvin Council Jr., 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, Rochester, New York
Council, a transfer from St. Bonaventure who also played at Wagner College and Monroe College, has averaged 13.3 points on 40.7% shooting while starting all 30 games and playing a team-leading 34.7 minutes per contest for the Jayhawks (21-9, 11-6).
He’s made 34 of 103 three-point attempts for 33.0%. He also has 150 assists to 54 turnovers with 33 steals.
Council hit nine 3s and scored 36 points in a road win over North Carolina State. He’s scored 20 or more points three times.
In a bit of a scoring slump, Council has produced 38 points total on 16-of-44 shooting (1-of-9 from deep) in his last four games, including losses to Arizona, Arizona State and Cincinnati and a win over Houston.
Council last season at St. Bonaventure earned NABC all-district and all-Atlantic 10 third-team honors after averaging 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game. He led the Atlantic 10 in steals with 72 and scored in double-figures in 29 games, including all A-10 league contests.
Council played high school hoops at University Prep in Rochester, New York, where he averaged 26.4 points per game in his senior season (2019-20). His team won the Section V Class AA title in 2020.
“One thing about Melvin, he plays downhill. His speed is undeniable,” KU coach Bill Self said of Council’s game. “He can play all day. He doesn’t get tired. The one that comes to mind who was like him more than anybody was Brandon Rush. Brandon never sat down in the timeout. He was never tired and Melvin has that same type of tank that just doesn’t seem to run out.”
Self noted that Council, “has been everything we thought he’d be. One thing about recruiting the portal, you don’t get to know the kids as well. You can try, but still you’re limited in talking to him. With Melvin you knew he had personality, and you knew he was appreciative, and you knew that he was a we-first guy.”
Self has enjoyed seeing Council relate to the fans. KU’s student section barks when he gets the basketball in reference to Council’s motto: “If you’re not a dog, you are dog food.”
“The thing that makes him cool is you can tell when he plays, he plays with joy,” Self said. “To me he’s fun to support and you enjoy watching him because he does have this exuberance about himself that’s very naive, which is attractive. He is very humble, and ‘Hey, just tell me what to do and I’ll try to do it.’ I love that about him.
“How can you have a bad day when you’re around him? He owns this place. He’s as popular as any kid we’ve ever had play here. He’s put his handprint on this place as much as anybody could.”
Self said he’s told Council more than once: ‘Gosh, man, I’m glad we got you.’ Because he’s a winner in my eyes.”
Tre White, 6-7, 215, Dallas
White, who committed to KU in high school but changed his mind and began his college career at USC, played one year for the Trojans, one at Louisville and one at Illinois before heading to KU for his final season of college hoops.
He has averaged 14.0 points on 46.0% shooting, including 42.6% from deep (49-of-115). He has made 116 of 134 free throws for 86.6%. He also has contributed 6.8 rebounds per game and dished 55 assists to 55 turnovers with 20 steals.
White has started all 30 games, averaging 31.6 minutes per contest. As a junior at Illinois, White averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. He shot 50.7% from the field and 82.4%from the free-throw line.
White played his senior high school season at Prolific Prep, where he averaged 18.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
Self said White reminds him “of a third-leading scorer on a really good team that probably didn’t get the credit he deserved, but we all knew he was as valuable as anybody.”
Asked to make a player comparison to White, Self mentioned two former Jayhawks: “For whatever reason, Travis Releford comes to mind. Markieff Morris when he first got here comes to mind. Of course Markieff’s a lottery pick. He was a terrific player, but I don’t think he ever got the credit for being as good as he was in large part because he didn’t get opportunity to play as many minutes.
“Tre is a guy that could make any team better. He’s versatile. He can play the 3. He can play the 4. He’s tough enough and quick enough to guard a guard for the most part and guard a big unless he’s just really big. I like his game a lot and I love his personality and what he brings to the table. He’s been a great teammate.” Self added.
Justin Cross, 6-8, 200, Oak Park, Illinois
Cross, who joined the program as an invited walk-on ahead of the 2023-24 season, has yet to score a point in five games this season after totaling four points on 2-of-2 shooting in four games in 2024-25.
He had one bucket versus Oakland and one against Brown. He has one rebound and one steal, as well as one assist, in eight minutes of playing time this year.
Cross started three of 35 games played and averaged 2.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots per game during the 2022-23 season, his sophomore year at John A. Logan College.
Logan won the 2023 NJCAA Division I national title with a 33-2 record. Cross averaged 12 minutes, 3.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in the Vols’ four victories in the NJCAA tournament.
Cross’ dad, Gene, played college basketball at Illinois (1990-94) and coached at UIC, DePaul, Virginia and Notre Dame as an assistant. He was head coach at Toledo from 2008-10. Gene Cross is currently director of scouting and administration for the NBA’s New York Knicks.
Wilder Evers, 6-4, 185, Birmingham, Alabama
Evers, like Cross an invited walk-on, joined the KU program for the 2022-23 season, which he redshirted.
He has scored 19 points in three seasons, including three points in five games this year. He hit a 3-point shot in a win over Green Bay in game one of the 2025-26 season.
In 2024-25 he had four points in a win over Oklahoma State. He hit a 3 in wins over Furman and Howard.
As a redshirt freshman in 2023-24, Evers caught an alley-oop for a basket against Oklahoma State. He had buckets against Houston and North Carolina Central, too.
Evers’ brother, Stone Evers, played baseball for KU. His parents, Mike and Sandy Evers, competed in track and field for the Jayhawks.
Evers helped lead Oak Mountain High School to three consecutive trips to Alabama’s 7A state quarterfinals, including Final Four appearances in 2020 and 2021. The team won the state championship in 2021.
That 2021 state-title team was the first in Oak Mountain history. Evers, a two-time all-county selection in his junior and senior seasons. averaged 11.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game as a senior.
Self recently had this to say about walk-ons Evers and Cross: “Wilder’s been here four years and Justin’s been here three. They both have got their degrees from here and have sacrificed a lot and been great teammates here for the time in which they’ve been here. So I’m excited for them.”
Jayden Dawson, 6-5, 205, Omaha, Nebraska
Dawson played three seasons at Loyola of Chicago before deciding to finish his career at KU.
He has scored 48 points in 22 games for a 2.2 average. Dawson has hit 16 of 49 shots for 32.7%. He’s 11-of-38 from 3-point range for 28.9%. He’s 5-for-5 from the line with 13 assists to two turnovers.
Dawson scored seven points against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in his best offensive showing thus far as a Jayhawk.
In three seasons at Loyola, Dawson started 47 of 72 games, averaging 9.7 points. He connected on 140 treys and scored 701 points in three seasons at Loyola.
Dawson averaged 17.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in his senior season at Omaha Central High School. He was a first-team Class A all-state and super-state selection. He scored over 1,000 points in his career at Omaha Central.
“Jayden hasn’t had a chance to play a lot, but he’s been a nice addition and a great teammate,” Self said.
Nginyu ‘Gee’ Ngala, 5-10, 175, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
The 26-year-old Ngala signed with Kansas in July 2025 as a graduate student after playing four seasons in Canada.
He has scored 16 points with three assists to two turnovers in 10 games for the Jayhawks.
In 73 career games in Canada, he scored 1,080 points with 206 assists and 147 made 3s. He is a graduate of Dalhousie University (where he played three seasons).
Ngala also played one season at Laurentian University and competed for the Montreal Alliance in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
Ngala averaged 14.8 points per game over his four seasons in Canada, scoring 1,080 career points. He also averaged 4.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
Ngala played high school basketball at Vanier Prep in Montréal. He led the Cheetahs to an undefeated season in 2018-19. His teams won Provincial championships in 2019 and 2020 and Ngala was Provincial Championship MVP his senior year.
“Gee obviously hasn’t played a lot,” Self said, “but he came in and has done exactly what we asked him to do when we brought him in: Be an unbelievable practice player, and he’s done that.”
Asked to describe the six-player class, Self said: “Six great kids but certainly one of the great things about college, in my opinion, is you get to see the kids grow up right before your very eyes in so many instances, and even if they’re great players, they may leave before they grow up, but still they’re yours.
“In the portal now, kids are coming in and they’re really not yours because they’ve been at other places first, and then they’re only going to be here for a year, maybe two at the most.
“So I think it’s a little bit harder for our fans to get connected to the guys. But with that being said, there are some guys that are just different and I think that Melvin, as much as anybody, has connected to our fans in a way that we could have never anticipated before he got here. I mean personality, energy and joy. It’s contagious. And I think he’s rubbed off on us and we have rubbed off on him, which is a really, really good thing.”
