A bright spot in Kentucky’s loss at Vanderbilt? Trent Noah finally got an opportunity
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Game day: Vanderbilt 74, No. 9 Kentucky 69
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee.
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The result didn’t go as he wished, but Trent Noah finally got a little run Saturday afternoon.
With Andrew Carr sidelined completely by a back injury that has hobbled him for weeks, Ansley Almonor slid into Kentucky’s starting lineup at Vanderbilt, and that meant there would be minutes available off the bench.
Many of them went to Noah, who didn’t play at all during UK’s first five games in the SEC.
On Saturday, Vanderbilt defeated Kentucky 74-69, handing the Cats their second consecutive loss and dropping them to 3-3 in the league.
On the bright side, it was a building block for Noah, a freshman from Harlan County who was one of the final commitments to Mark Pope’s first Kentucky roster and made that pledge knowing full well that playing time was likely to be hard to come by right off the bat.
Against the Commodores, he played a season-high 12 minutes.
Afterward, Pope was obviously down about the loss, but he noted — without being asked about the freshman — that Noah had given the team “a real burst” off the bench, entering the game before the second TV timeout of the first half and playing some meaningful minutes down the stretch.
“I thought he was great on the glass. I thought his energy was really good tonight, and we need that,” Pope said.
Noah scored only two points, but he had four rebounds and a steal. His one bucket came after he hustled for an offensive rebound on his own missed 3-pointer. One of his other offensive boards — he had three in the game — led to a 3-pointer by Koby Brea in the first half.
“Yeah, it was awesome out there,” he said of his first SEC action. “Unfortunately, the game didn’t go our way in the end, but I feel like we got a lot of things that we can improve on — that are fixes. And that kind of just makes me excited — and the team excited — to where our ceiling can be.”
Kentucky committed 17 turnovers Saturday — uncharacteristic for the Cats — and that was one of the biggest contributing factors to the loss. (Noah had zero turnovers.)
With Carr out and Kerr Kriisa now sidelined for seven weeks and counting with a foot injury, the ripple effects throughout the lineup meant more minutes for Kentucky’s freshmen. Noah entered the game with 12:37 left in the first half alongside Collin Chandler, who had played just three minutes during the SEC schedule (all in the loss to Georgia earlier this month). Travis Perry has been the primary backup to starting point guard Lamont Butler while Kriisa has been out.
On Saturday, Noah got the most time among the trio. Chandler didn’t play in the second half. Perry played just 60 seconds in the second half — not counting the final five seconds of the game, after Butler fouled out — with Pope shifting his approach to put Jaxson Robinson at the point while Butler was on the bench.
Yet, the UK coach went back to Noah for a two-and-a-half minute stretch with the game tied midway through the second half, and then again in the final minutes.
“Yeah, he was huge,” said Otega Oweh, who led UK with 21 points. “Him, Travis, they come in and they just try and uplift the energy. You know, he had big plays: offensive rebounds, defense, crashing (the boards), doing all that. Trent’s a big, physical guard, so I feel like, what we ask him to go out there and do, it kind of fits him. So, I mean, he did great.”
With Carr out, Noah — at 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds — was asked to play more of a physical forward role, something he’s been doing in UK’s practices despite coming to campus with the reputation as a prolific scorer.
He last played against Brown — logging four minutes in a 34-point victory on Dec. 31 — and had made just two appearances since late November before Saturday afternoon, with no action against high-major opponents until he stepped onto the Memorial Gym court.
“I’ve just been trying to do what I can,” Noah said. “Work as hard as I can and trust in God’s plan, and everything will pan out. I mean, we have so many good guys and so many good players on our team, so as long as we’re getting wins and playing together, I’m happy.”
Pope’s postgame assessment of Carr’s status wasn’t particularly optimistic, so it’s possible that UK’s starting power forward could be out again at Tennessee on Tuesday night. If that happens, expect to see more of Noah, who has clearly earned some level of trust from his head coach.
With Vandy leading 71-69 and just 1:21 left on the clock, the Commodores had the ball, and Kentucky was in a must-stop situation. At that moment, Pope subbed Noah into the game to play alongside Butler, Oweh, Robinson and Amari Williams — four Kentucky starters.
Predictably, Vandy got Noah into an isolation situation, with fifth-year guard A.J. Hoggard getting the ball on the wing and taking it right at the freshman. Hoggard unleashed a spin move mid-drive and shook Noah, but he recovered to contest the shot. Hoggard missed, but — after Williams slid over to play help defense — the offensive rebound landed right in the hands of Devin McGlockton, whose putback gave Vandy a 73-69 lead.
“I thought Trent Noah was great tonight. And I have a lot of confidence in him,” Pope said. “And he had a big impact on the game in a really positive way, and he’ll continue to do that. He made some mistakes that you’re going to expect from rookies, but he’s going to be a good player.”
The importance of getting a chance in such a key moment wasn’t lost on the freshman.
“Yeah, for sure, that definitely means a lot,” Noah said. “The whole coaching staff just instills confidence into us, and that’s why it’s so fun to play for Coach Pope and his staff. So, yeah, that was awesome.”
Beyond Tennessee on Tuesday night, the Cats will have 11 more regular-season games on their schedule, with tournament time after that. Noah, who scored 1,167 points and took 688 shots as a high school senior, knows he won’t be the go-to guy for the Wildcats at any point this season, but he’ll likely be needed to make contributions in some big situations down the stretch.
The same goes for Perry and Chandler, two more celebrated high school players who will be counted on to chip in here and there, with larger roles coming later in their college careers.
“I think they’re really capable guys, and we desperately need their minutes,” Pope said. “We need their minutes to be really quality. And they’re fully capable. And it’s also growing. Growing’s always painful.”
