Vicky Graff Photo
Trent Noah might have struggled to make shots at the end of last season but the Kentucky junior is still best known for his shooting.
He was a prolific scorer/shooter at Harlan County High School and shot well his first season at Kentucky before having some issues last year that obviously impacted his confidence.
Now the junior says he’s working to be more than a shooter and able to help coach Mark Pope’s team in different ways.
“I feel like that I’ve been kind of more of a creator vibe over the first three weeks (of summer practice),” Noah said recently. “Just trying to expand my game and using my shot to make me faster and more athletic.
“Trying to work on my touch around the rim. That’s a big emphasis for us this summer, is 2-point field goal percentage because it just kind of trickles down and domino effects to transition defense and on and on.”
Noah knows the competition for playing time could be intense this season if Pope maintains a healthy roster — something that has not happened the previous two years.
Noah said he’s been concentrating on using his shot fake to get around defenders to get better uncontested shots. It will also give him the option to dish to open teammates if other defenders have to close on him.
“I feel like I’ve kind of realized how it’s become a lot easier to kind of get in the 15-foot area and kind of draw the defense to create shots for other people. Me and coach (Mark) Pope have worked a lot on using my shot to be kind of quicker and the fastest player on the floor,” Noah said.
Noah primarily has been a 3-point shooter at UK with 87 attempts in two seasons compared to 26 2-point attempts in two years. He is 16-for-26 from 2-point range in his career so if he can get inside to take shots or create for others it not only could help UK but also take pressure off him having to make 3-point shots.
9 Responses
Look regardless he has 3 years left of college basketball and his best years are clearly in front of him. I always said it would take Noah 2-3 years to really make a difference on this team. I believe big things are coming for Noah. First off Pope needs to give him at least 10-12 mins a game. Now if he's on fire you leave him in for longer. I think he will have a role on this team and even win a couple of games for us. The reason I say that is because he has a game coming where he just goes off and shows everyone what he can really do. I think he should be the backup 2 guard. It's like this who is better Hawthorne or Noah? I would play Wilkins for 22-25 minutes a game. Then I would have Hawthorne and Noah splitting backup minutes at the 2. He can also play the 3 but who wants to play the 3 when you have Milan 30-33 minutes a game then Kam Williams is backing him up. We might need to go with positionless basketball and just have a point guard and 4 other guys. Usually you have 12 players instead of 14. So it's tricky with the playing time. I think Alex Wilkins is better than what's being said because his offensive game is smooth he can score from anywhere on the court and when he drives to the basket he passes it way more than he shoots it which I absolutely love because usually the 2 is going to shoot it but he knows when to pass and when to score whichever is a easier bucket that's what he's going to do. Zoom is the same way but he's more physical than Wilkins. Wilkins will cut through the lane and you will think he's going up with a floater but he's actually throwing a lob to his center or power forward. Then when you think he's going to throw the oop he will shoot a 8 foot floater that's automatic and it's almost impossible to stop. Milan is hands down the best 3 point shooter in all of college basketball and it's not even close. The volume of 3s he shot and to shoot over 48% is incredible. I think he will hover around the 50% mark all year. Kam Williams is who will improve in the shooting department more than anyone. I expect him to go from a 36% shooter to a 44-45% shooter and if this happens we will be unstoppable. Noah is going to shoot better than 40%. Morton is going to shoot around 40%. Potter is going to shoot around 40%. McBride is going to shoot over 40% probably 41-43%. N'Diaye can shoot Hawthorne can shoot Mason Williams can shoot. We have a team full of shooters. The only 2 players that shouldn't be shooting 3s is Moreno and Kepnang. I think we average 90+ PPG this year and our defense won't be elite but it will be solid. Go Cats
You are on the mark! Noah will hit around 50% of his 3’s if he gets to shoot a good number of 3’s. Perry would be joining him at about 50% if Pope had not failed miserably in not giving those two 16 to 20 minutes a game each during their first 13 to 15 games at UK!!!
You have my support of you can get Pope to hire you as an assistant coach & he lets you teach him some basics! Take the Professor, Barry and a few other good ones (Combs, Old Fan & others I can’t recall the name of) on VV with you! Get Larry V as a special consultant. Then Pope may be able to keep his job after a FF run !!!
I think we would make a awesome staff. A return is not off the table for Perry. He could be at Dayton this year to pad his stats for 2 great years on a power 4 team.
👍
Ain't in Harlan anymore
Noah & probably any grear KY HS player needs to go anywhere but UK if they want to get minutes so they can succeed in college BB, as long as Pope & his spineless assistants (who never contribute anything anymore) are still choking UK BB.
Been a rock solid UK fan since the 1950’s and have watched the grear legendary UK BB program slip & slide under Tubby, the fraud and now Pope. It really hurts to see Pope be so terrible at coaching, without any discipline and allowing mostly portal thugs rung free with their selfish street ball antics.
It was tormenting enough to watch the fraud throw away the 38-0 record with his own selfish decision to play the less talented guards in the loss to Wisconsin, and other seasons of underachievement, but Pope has been absent from the bench – he must have a double pretending to he a coach. How can anyone be so passive and let a bunch of losers do their own thing and play just above 0.500 ball since the 1st seqson 11-1 start ?!!
Can UK BB recover? Maybe the new AD will bring in some leadership after the secret contract specialist Barnie has finally left. Let’s hope questionable Capilouto will not slip Barnie back into the UKAA as some consultant because he failed for nearly 1/4 century.
UK FB has a very active new coach with leadership ability shining in recruiting. I hope he can be successful winning in the tough SEC. The new coach & new AD may be the combo needed to stop the slide and rally the troops.
The best to Noah & all other grear KY HS players, wherever you go! It’s disheartening to see them suffer under any incompetent UK BB coach!
Still hoping to see UK BB and UK FB rise to elite levels.
UK BB
The bookends of a 1/2 century of greatness!
1948-1958 4 Titles in 11 years – Rupp
1996-1998 2 Titles in 3 Title games – Pitino
In between the bookends, Joe B brought home the Title in 1978 – the lone title in 37 years! – Thanks Joe B
Since the 1998 Title (players recruited & developed under Pitino), the Title cupboard has been bare with the lone exception of 2012 when the grear unselfish Anthony Davis & MKG teamed up with KY HS Mr BB Darius Miller and other unselfish players to grab the gold for UK. That’s only 1 Title in 28 years.
So since the 1948-1998 half century of UK BB greatness, the current 1/2 century (starting in 1999 when the PLOW was brought in by Tubby) now in progress is in the cellar by comparison!
Trivia Quiz….
How many UK BB Titles without at least one key player being a KY native?
NONE !!! And to think some folks did not like the greatest score in UK HS history simply because the pretend coach did it know how to teach players to set screens for him!!! Imagine Noah AND Perry both shooting 3’s behind screens and hitting 45% to 50%. Pope should have watched some tapes of Travis Ford 1/2 of his hitting 3’s with big screens helping him, under a real coach – Rick Pitino.
In closing, imagine if AD Barnie had a spine and had told Tubby farewell and hired Pitino within minutes after he resigned at Boston!!! The UK dominance of 7 FF’s in 8 years with 3 consecutive Title gwmes resulting in 2 Titles would have been quickly restored and today UK would hold the lead in NCAA wins, Title wins, and many more Big Dance records!
That dream has unfortunately been replaced by many years of nightmares!
Just one more thing – if the grear OC Coen had not been run off by Stoops, UK FB would
not have collapsed and if he had become the new HC, UK would be in the elite level of the SEC! He was an NFL HC shortly after being run off by Stoops!
Go Big Blue! Blow away the past 1/4 century of mostly falling short and bring back UK BB and establish a new UK FB standard!
Noah won't shoot 50% this year. Neither will Perry. Perry will never be good enough to return to Ky. Pitino didn't win the 98' Championship at Ky. Tubby Smith did. Stoops didn't run off Coen. He used Ky to get to the NFL. The Big Boohoo Nation did run off Calipari. Carma's a bitch.
The internet is the place to hide identity and try to put down grear record breaking KY HS BB players but it does not change the amazing records soundly recorded in history.