Nebraska lands commitment from KU transfer White

After months of patiently waiting while Kansas transfer Andrew White thoroughly and meticulously evaluated his options during his second go-around in the recruiting process, Nebraska was finally rewarded in a big way on Monday.

The junior shooting guard had reportedly narrowed down his choices between the Huskers and Maryland, but in the end White opted to go with the school that had been on him since the very beginning when he first decided to move on from the Jayhawks and announced his decision to commit to the Huskers.

The former four-star Rivals150 prospect (No. 51 in the 2012 class) from Richmond, Va., will have to sit out next season per NCAA transfer rules and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining starting in 2015-16.

"I am really excited to add Andrew to our program," Miles said in a statement on Monday. "I believe he can be an impact guy for us. He has pro potential and reminds me of Paul Pierce. Andrew has been involved in the elite levels of high school, AAU, and college basketball and that will continue with the Huskers.

"I really liked getting to know Andrew throughout this process. He is mature and thoughtful and wants the best for all involved. He wants to get better, and he definitely wants Nebraska to continue to rise in major college basketball."

Having been relegated to minimal playing time during his first two seasons in Lawrence, Kan., including averaging just 5.9 minutes and 2.3 points in 19 games last year, White saw the writing on the wall that his opportunity at KU wasn't panning out the way he had planned.

After officially announcing his decision to transfer back in May, though, numerous doors flew open as he moved his focus toward searching for his next school, with other programs like Notre Dame, Florida State, Virginia Tech, SMU and Richmond all expressing serious interest.

One of those doors was to Nebraska, where some familiar ties and a promising opportunity immediately put the Huskers in the hunt for the 6-foot-6, 210-pound White's services.

Not only did NU have the selling point of being a program on the rise with an extremely successful history of making the most out of Division I transfers (see Terran Petteway and Walter Pitchford), the Huskers also had the advantage of a pre-existing relationship with White and his family through assistant coach and lead recruiter Kenya Hunter, who recruited White at Georgetown when he was coming out of the Miller School (Va.) back in 2012.

"I definitely noticed that Nebraska has a pretty good history of transfers," White told HOL.com in May. "But I was looking at the school more in terms of their playing situation for me as opposed to what they've done with transfers in the past, because every player is different. I like Coach Hunter. Coach (Tim) Miles seems like a great guy, and he's really had that program going in the right direction. Just seeing their football program and things like that, I know that their fan support is on an extreme level. I just feel like it would be a pretty good situation all around."

White added that after things didn't work out at Kansas he wanted to be absolutely sure he found the right place for his second and final school. Given the rise Nebraska has made in just two seasons under Miles and his staff, White knew early on that the Huskers provided exactly the opportunity he was looking for both on and off the court.

"I think the success that they've had in the Big Ten and them being in the Big Ten," White said. "From what I understand, Nebraska is getting better every year. They have a great opportunity for a degree and great fan support and it's a college town. I like to see the best of all worlds."