Les Dixon Photo
Trent Noah has always followed the Kentucky men’s basketball team, but wasn’t even sure if he would get a chance to live out his dream of playing for the Wildcats.
The former Harlan County standout originally committed to play at South Carolina, but shifted gears and re-opened his commitment after Mark Pope was hired as coach of the Wildcats last spring.
“Growing up a lifelong Kentucky fan and now being at the University of Kentucky, it’s just a dream come true,” he said. “I’m super happy where I’m at. God’s plan is greater than mine. It’s awesome.”
He admitted the recruiting process was stressful at times, but is happy the college route changed from Columbia to Lexington at just the right time.
“That’s what the recruitment process is just all along,” he said. “You never know where you’re going to go until you’re there. I’m just thankful where I’m at now and super grateful.”
Throughout summer workouts, Noah has gotten adjusted to the pace of the game and the level of talent on the team’s roster. He has been impressed with the roster Pope assembled in a short period of time.
“The high school game and the college game are completely different, learning a lot of new terminology and stuff like that, playing with amazing players — I mean super, super, veteran guys,” he said. “I think that’s super, super good because I get to learn from them and just get to pick their brains, because they’ve been through it and they know what’s going on. Just getting to learn from them and our exceptional coaching staff. It’s been really good. It just makes me and everybody around us better.”
Noah added the veterans on the team are “the real deal” and he relies on BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson for guidance on the court.
“He’s been through coach Pope’s offense, so he knows what’s going on,” Noah said. “He helps me and the other guys, but we all help each other out, lean on each other, and that just makes us all better.”
Noah added the practice sessions have been intense, but doesn’t mind the competitive nature of the workouts.
“This is what I want,” he said. “I get to play against the best players in the country and get to compete against them. They’ve been through it and they’ve had my experiences.”
Noah also has enjoyed getting to know classmate and Kentucky Mr. Basketball Travis Perry on more of a personal level, which he says is beneficial for both players.
“It’s awesome — getting to know him a lot better,” he said. “I get to live with him and see him work every day. He’s an exceptional friend of mine. He’s super hard working and we always get in the gym together.”
That relationship, Noah said, will help carry the two players through their freshman season.
“We struggle, we go through the same struggles together and then get to talk to each other, pick each other up,” he said. “It’s a really good situation.”
6 Responses
Noah & Perry are going to be amazing and surprise the doubters. Their game will speak volumes. Their attitude is great for the TEAM and their KY roots will infuse additional fire into their teammates to want to WIN FOR UK which the BBN has been missing most of the past 1/4 century.
12 hand-picked players, most with a lot of experience, who were identified as “blendable” in Pope’s winning system!
Rupp Arena will need to add roof vents because the noise and atmosphere will be at new levels every game and not just a few games.
Perry and Noah came in at the perfect time. With the perfect blend of players. They will learn so much this year and go against such experienced players in practice. Even if they don’t get a ton of playing time they will ultimately get better. We have what we need for this year’s team. They will be what we need for next year’s team. Getting a little playing time against the weaker teams will help them get used to the speed of a college game. In college basketball all the people they will be playing against were all stars in high school so I expect this year to be a learning year. I think Perry gets more minutes than Noah. With Noah there are so many guys that can play the 2 and 3 on this team that it will be harder for him to find playing time. If he doesnt get much playing time I would play him in 4 games that are blow outs and reserve a redshirt year for him. I don’t think you can redshirt Perry because his shooting is on another level. I still think he averages around 5 minutes or less a game. We have 7 5th year seniors and they will get majority of the playing time. Oweh is a junior and might start. Garrison will compete with Williams for minutes and Your not going to be able to keep Chandler off the court he’s to dynamic. The core players for the following year. Garrison Oweh Chandler Perry and Noah are going to be q great nucleus to add too. Pope won’t have to start from scratch. He can get the 3 or 4 freshman that he wants. Then pick and choose in the portal more. I think he takes 4 of the best transfers in the portal. Just think this is first team. He didnt have much time to assemble this team
Watch how great next year’s team is when he gets a full year to recruit. I think this team wins 25+ games.
Everyone thinks I knock this kid but I don’t he’s a great freshman in college. I think by his junior and senior season he will be one of the leaders on the team. I definitely think he gets progressively better every year as he should. I don’t believe he averages but maybe 1 or 2 ppg this year. His sophomore year I see 6 or 7 ppg. His junior year when he breaks out he will be a 12-14 ppg and start getting recognition in college basketball. His senior year he will be a 3rd team SEC type guy and probably average 15-16ppg. So you see I think he ends up being a great basketball player. I just don’t see it happening as a freshman with all this experience around him. Trent is a great basketball player. He’s done what every Kentucky kid grew up dreaming of doing. The first basketball team I can remember is with Rob Lock and Rex Chapman and Winston Bennett (He bought commercial lawnmowers from my uncle who own Iroquois lawn and garden) Ed Davender and the 🥽. The most exciting teams for me was the Sean Woods John Pelphrey, and Richie Farmer, and Daren Fieldhouse. The team that drove me nuts and turned alot of people against Tubby is when Saul Smith would walk down the court with his finger in the air and dribble the ball off his foot.lol Tubby should have never recruited Saul Smith and played him that was his downfall. People forget Tubby had some great teams and his problem was it was he loved the student athlete and college basketball used to love the student athletes and it changed about 25 years ago and that is what’s wrong with college basketball and it changed forever. The student athlete is dead. Coaches want guys who don’t give a shit about attending college. They go to school for 5-6 months they don’t have to do any work because the one and dones will only usually be their for 1 semester. The NCAA loves it because it makes the games more entertaining when players are doing super athletic dunks. The NCAA needs to change. They should have to sign a contract to a school. I would say a 2 year contract. If things dont work out their they can transfer after their contract expires. If they want to leave before that then they can but they won’t be paid for that year. Plus you should only be able to transfer once unless their is a coaching change. Their would still be a ton of players in the transfer portal but nowhere near as many as this last year. It was a circus. At one point their was over 3,500 players in the portal and if that’s true then anybody in the top 500 would probably be very good and I guess that great for Kentucky because we have 7 transfers in the top 100 another transfer 139th and Ansley A. Is the lowest ranked. Some have him #1,000 which I find that hard to believe averaging almost 17 ppg. And getting another year to be even better. Other sites have him at like #800 and #700. I don’t know why they don’t add Chandler to this year’s class he was on a Mormon mission.
TJ, you have a keen eye for talent and most of your comments and opinions are well taken, I just don’t want to get into an argument about something that is unknown until the season starts and Pope plays the guys who will lead UK the FF with a strong shot at #9. We are BBN members so we need to stick together even if we disagree in some finer points (who starts & who plays the most). I’m still waiting on my call from Coach Pope to ask for my input, but he seems to be too busy at this time 🙂
Enjoy the ride to the FF!!!
It will be interesting to see how the minutes get doled out. Noah, Perry, and Chandler could have seen major minutes, if not starting at other schools. I look forward to having them back in 2025 with maybe Garrison and Oweh. If Pope signs Johnson and Moreno, that would be a solid nucleus to build around.
Pope may (& no one really knows, except Pope who will act according to how the games flow and players produce) use every player for at least 7 or 8 minutes. Lon one really knows, but he wants to lead UK as far as possible – S16? FF? Chanpion!! ?
So he is going to play whoever can contribute to the ultimate success THIS season.
That’s why they play the games – then we will see what Pope does AND see what each player does.
Beat Duke in that very early season game and UK will be in the road to some big time success!