Former Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn has joined the Kansas basketball team. Kansas announced the roster addition on Monday.
Kaufman-Renn, 24, was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 59 overall) and played in the NBA Summer league after five years at Purdue including a redshirt 2021-22 season in which he did not play. He did not sign a contract with the Timberwolves and was granted a temporary restraining order to pursue a sixth season of NCAA eligibility.
"Trey Kaufman-Renn, who had a tremendous career at Purdue, has enrolled in classes, and is practicing with us as of Sunday," Kansas coach Bill Self said, via KU’s announcement. … “Even though it's late in the process, because of his basketball IQ, we think his transition will be quicker than most put in the same circumstance."
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Kaufman-Renn joins a group of players that have sued the NCAA in search of extended eligibility to return to college for the 2025-26 season, citing the NCAA’s recently passed "five in five" model granting athletes five years of eligibility. Most of those players are from the recruiting Class of 2022.
The five-in-five model does not apply to the outgoing Class of 2026 due to rosters for the upcoming season having already being established when it passed. But players have sued the NCAA and repeatedly been granted additional eligibility in court in conflict with NCAA rules.
The NCAA maintains that allowing those athletes to return wouldn’t be fair to members of the incoming freshman class and established players, a burden that Purdue coach Matt Painter cited in reference to Kaufman-Renn leaving the program.
“I want him to play at Purdue and not play play at any place else,” Painter recently told the Field of 68 of Kaufman-Renn leaving the program. “I had to do what I had to do because I didn’t know this was a possibility, and I gave my word to the guys that we signed, and I can’t go back on that.”
Why is Kaufman-Renn allowed to play?
Kaufman-Renn was a member of 2021 recruiting class, but sat his entire freshman season as a redshirt due to a knee injury. He contends that he also should be granted an extra year of eligibility and sued the NCAA in August in pursuit of one.
Judges Kyle Williams and Justin Mills of the Clark County Circuit Court in Indiana granted Kaufman-Renn a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction overruling the NCAA and allowing him to pursue his sixth year.
The NCAA is expected to appeal that ruling, per the Kansas City Star. But he’s eligible to play as things stand and joins a Kansas team that was ranked No. 17 in Monday’s preseason AP poll.
Kaufman-Renn is a 6-9 forward. He was a standout at Purdue who earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2024-25 after averaging 20.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. He projects as an immediate impact player for Kansas.