Travis Perry, left, and Trent Noah waiting to get into their first game at UK. (Vicky Graff Photo)
The game was out of hand and Mark Pope had his first win as Kentucky’s head coach wrapped up before he sent Kentuckians Travis Perry and Trent Noah to check into Monday’s game against Wright State.
However, Kentucky fans in Rupp Arena erupted with a loud roar for the two freshmen who both had sensational high school careers in the Bluegrass.
Perry, the state’s all-time leading scorer and Mr. Basketball from Lyon County, and Noah, a top five all-time scorer who got Harlan County to the state title game last year, came into the game with 3 1/2 minutes to play.
The crowd would really have exploded if either one had scored and both did get open 3-pointers — but both missed. Perry ended up with two rebounds in 3 1/2 minutes while Noah had one.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope understood the excitement of UK fans when both came into the game.
“Travis Perry and Trent Noah are from Kentucky. They are great basketball players. That’s probably the headline,” Pope said after the 103-62 win over Wright State. “They are terrific basketball players. They are freshmen playing at the University of Kentucky making big-time plays.”
Fans speculated all summer about how much the two freshmen guards might play. However, the two in-state players are behind older, more experienced guards Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Otega Oweh, Koby Brea and Kerr Kriisa while freshman Collin Chandler is a former top 20 recruit who is getting better and better.
Pope has not lost confidence in what the two can eventually do for Kentucky.
“I’m telling you guys, the time is not going to be far away,” Pope said. “It could be in a week, a day, a month, a year when these guys are going to be headliner guys on this team.
“They are terrific basketball players. They are like sieves. They are picking up stuff and learning stuff and they are tough as nails.”
Pope knows what playing at Kentucky means to them both and how that will benefit them and the program going forward.
“I suspect that neither one of those guys would ever miss a single rep ever in their entire career at the University of Kentucky. We are blessed to have those two kids and they are really special and going to represent Kentucky great. We are really blessed,” Pope said.
13 Responses
I like seeing the smiles on their faces. That’s what it looks like when a dream comes true.
I remember a player that played here a couple of years and left us this summer.
I never saw him smile one time.
He looked like he was so unhappy.
Thiero??
Yes. My guess is that he was unhappy because he had to work his a$$ off to get PT and it was just handed to other players.
They need this year to catch up on the speed of the game. Its nearly impossible to go from playing lee county to playing Auburn. I tried to tell everyone not out of any type of hatred hell they will probably be my favorite players in year or 2. They just aren’t ready yet and Pope knows this. You can hit 1,000 free throws in a row and that doesn’t translate to one minute of game action. They will have there time to shine in a Kentucky uniform. I would actually play them in 4 games and save a year for them to actually play. 10 deep is plenty deep then add them 2 on and there is literally no playing time for them this year. I actually seen people saying Perry could start or play meaningful minutes and I told everyone there is no way in hell they start over 5th year seniors or even a junior for that matter. Chandler is the best freshman on this team and its not even close. People forget he was a much higher rated recruit then these kids. If you redshirt them you get that redshirt senior season were they are probably the 2 highest scoring guys on the team. Plus if you redshirt they will be freshman again next year but will actually crack the rotation. Probably being the 7th and 8th guys next year. There third year in the program is when they can crack the starting lineup. I would rather them be redshirt sophomores when they start rather then Juniors or seniors and there college career is almost over. The difference is getting 2 years of legitimate playing time or 3 years of playing time with much better results. By the conference schedule Pope said he would probably be 8 or 9 deep. I would like us to remain 10 deep but in closer games I doubt he plays 10 guys. Maybe 9. So like I said why not play them against the weaker teams like 4 games and then reserve this wasted year for them besides practice. Noah will play before Perry because of his size. We might need him at the 4 in a foul trouble situation then again the way we run and gun playing more than 1 big hurts your chances of running the floor more. If Noah and Perry wanted to play this year they could have went to Murray State or More head or Eastern and played for a year or 2 then transferred to Kentucky. This year they are just going to learn from the veterans and figure out the speed of the SEC. Which is the most athletic and best conference in college basketball this season. They are saying maybe 11 teams get in the tourney from the SEC this year. I think the most the sec has ever put in the tournament is 8 or 9 teams so its much better this year. I actually like having Texas and Oklahoma on the schedule thats 2 new games each year that we didn’t play.
Littleton does not mince words
Chandler can jump out of the gym.
I don’t know how long we’ll have him.
By the way, Murray State put Ja Morant.
Out. Go Racers!
Iam a huge UK basketball fan I have a UK tattoo and iam from bell county kentucky Middlesboro I wish Calpari well at Arkansas and pull for the Razorbacks until they play us at Rupp Arena the SEC Conference is the best in College Basketball hands down
Good attitude to have Charles
I thought Perry’s shooting would propel him into more PT, but it hasn’t showed up in games. Pope has 10 upperclassmen as Chandler is 2 years older than our true freshmen. If any of those upperclassmen were skill void, that would be one thing, but all 10 of them can ball. They deserve to get 95% of the PT. They give us the best chance to win. Perry and Noah will get their shot next year. Will next year’s hotshot freshmen be ok with these 2 plus 5 or 6 transfer seniors getting the bulk of the PT in 2025/26?
Good problem to have.
I bleed blue I I also am from the 606 of Bell County up in a little holler known as BLACKSNAKE however I have no love for Calipari after I think the 17 season John started to think he was bigger than BBN which is just nuts !!! He could have been the king if he would have been half as good to the university as he was to the kids/pros.So there you have it no more rooting for Cal unless of course he’s playing LOUSERVILLE OR PUKE U. GO CATS !!!