STATE FARM CHAMPIONS CLASSIC: KANSAS VS DUKE

November 10, 2026

Tyran Stokes

Tre White

Kansas Jayhawks

Press Conference

Kansas 89, Kentucky 69

Q. Tre, you had your career tonight. Did you want to do more with mal ban out or was it one of those great nights?

TRE WHITE: I feel like that's the blessing and the special thing about our team is our depth and next man up, and you know, with TKR and KD and our big men coming in and filling that role it made it so easy to play off that catch and shoot to our guards, getting downhill. T Stokes, his gravity pulling two, three people, I'm getting open shots, so I'm just glad I got to knock a couple down. My teammates make it so easy for me.

Q. You were able to exploit the Kentucky defense. How did you get in that rhythm like that?

TYRAN STOKES: They were kind of helping out a little bit. I don't think they were trying to really key in on my jump shot; more so my driving. So when I seen the guys step back, I practice those shots every time. If a man goes under, my coaches tell me step go back and shoot it and they really instilled the confidence in me this game to just go out there and live free and shoot.

Q. (No microphone.)

TYRAN STOKES: I am pretty sure everyone obviously knows for me it was up to Kansas and Kentucky for my last two schools. I'm from Louisville. I had a long recruiting process with Kentucky.

Obviously when I chose Kansas and I knew that game was going to be here, it was personal for sure. But we got the dub, created a team, and that's all that matters.

Q. Tre, how were you and others able to contain Momcilovic so easily?

TRE WHITE: It's not easy. He's run off so many actions. I think it's not a one-man job. I think it's a whole-team defense. We got somebody bluffing at it. We got somebody helping off the back cuts. It's a full-man job. I just feel like we did a good job tonight making them shoot tough twos and tough threes for sure.

He's a great shooter though.

Q. How much easier does TKR make the game for both of you?

TYRAN STOKES: For me he just adds a lot of space to the floor. He's great in the short roll, great at the top of the key. You give him the ball, like Tre said, my gravity is strong but his gravity is probably even stronger.

He's got experience in the college level, so playing with that as a freshman is great for me because it gives me the ball even when I don't think I'm open.

Q. You picked between the two schools, but what made it personal?

TYRAN STOKES: For me, just growing up, I kind of was at UNC/Louisville fan. A lot of my family either like Louisville or Kentucky, but I was on the Louisville side. So growing up obviously you know the tradition and the rivalry between Louisville and Kentucky, so being from Louisville I got that still got that same emotions as if I was playing for Louisville.

But I'm here at Kansas, so obviously being able to play against a school like that is just one of one, and this is my first time to step on the big stage and show what I can do.

Q. Tyran, was it the same for Tay Kinney?

TYRAN STOKES: Yeah, we talked about this game when I committed. We knew we were going to end up playing Kentucky. Obviously the same emotion being from Newport, but obviously we did what we did to get the dub.

Q. How important was it, Tyran, to get that foul trouble for their big men early on?

TYRAN STOKES: Me and Tre talked about that a lot. If we're going to come out we know there's bigger bigs and we're going to try to punch it down their throat to get them in early trouble.

I told TKR, if we could play without Malachi on the floor it would be much easier because he's dynamic, he can pass, he can sometimes step back and shoot. So I was planning on getting him in foul trouble is just a lot easier for us to get downhill and attack.

Q. Tre, did you feel like you broke them in the second half that made them step back a little bit?

TRE WHITE: Nah, we really didn't even think that. I feel like that's our growth for real, not taking our foot off their necks whenever we feel like we're going on a run, because you can see they can go on a 6-0, 8-0, 10-0 run super quick. I feel that's where we grew at a little bit tonight, but I feel like we stayed foot on the gas tonight. We didn't get complacent.

Q. Tyran, follow up on that, is that part of the reason why even though you're up 21 with like 30 seconds to play you were still trying to drive and score?

TYRAN STOKES: Yeah, a little bit. I was really trying to get it done so I could celebrate a little bit more, but we got the win, so I'm happy.

Q. Tre, since we're talking about personal, you played at Louisville. Is there anything for you two with not being able to beat them when you were there?

TRE WHITE: For sure definitely personal. We got some guys from Louisville over there, so it was definitely an amped up, emotional game. I'm happy about how we stayed composed throughout some questionable calls and turnovers on our end, but it was definitely personal.

Q. Staying on the topic of personal, usually around this time this early in the season you typically see Kansas probably ranked a little higher than what they currently are. Is something you guys kind of wanted to come out and make a statement? Was that in your minds at all at any point, just to kind of...

TRE WHITE: I wouldn't say the ranking just because we try not to pay attention to outside noise, but every game we definitely try to send a message to everybody watching for sure that we feel like we're the best team in the country, or one of the best teams.

But we don't pay attention to media and stuff like that.

TYRAN STOKES: Yeah, I can agree. I don't think anybody really talks about -- I don't think we even brought up us being moved up two spots from 15 to 17. We just knew we that had to come out and make it a statement, and I feel like we did that.