KU basketball’s Tre White, Melvin Council Jr. sign with NBA teams as free agents
Former University of Kansas men’s basketball players Tre White and Melvin Council Jr. have signed free agent deals with NBA teams after not being selected in the two-round NBA Draft, KU confirmed in a pair of posts on social media site X on Thursday morning.
White, a 6-foot-7 wing from Dallas, has signed a deal with the Miami Heat. He initially reported the news with 247Sports via a social media post.
Council, a 6-4 guard from Rochester, New York, has signed with the New Orleans Pelicans. Council also confirmed the signing on his own Instagram account.
Terms of the deals have not been disclosed.
White, who played for KU, Illinois, Louisville and USC in a four-year college career, averaged 13.5 points and 6.7 rebounds a game last season.
“I think (White) can be a 3-and-D guy,” KU associate head coach Jeremy Case said on Thursday on the Hawk Talk radio show. “He can make those corner 3s and he can play defense and rebound, which is pretty much what he did for us.”
Council averaged 12.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per game in his one season at KU.
Case said he was impressed the most by “how he embraced KU nation. He understood what being a Jayhawk meant, even though he hadn’t been here, and that was fun to watch. And then on the court ... the N.C. State game was unbelievable. He played like 38 minutes a game as hard as he could. He was terrific for us. He really was.”
