Trent Noah 2.0? A Kentucky basketball fan favorite has big plans for the future
The topic of conversation during Trent Noah’s first offseason meeting with local reporters this week turned to Travis Perry, his fellow Kentuckian and former UK basketball teammate.
Noah, who is entering his sophomore year with the Wildcats, said the loss of Perry — a fellow freshman last season who decided to transfer to Ole Miss — “definitely stung,” referring to the ex-Cat as a close friend and noting that the two were roommates as UK freshmen.
The two players — high school rivals turned college teammates — went through a lot in Lexington over the last year. They both came in at the lowest position on the Wildcats’ playing time totem pole. They sat and watched. They commiserated over a lack of playing time. And then they both, unexpectedly, got their shot on the big stage.
Noah lamented the loss of Perry but wished his friend the best in Oxford.
Did the thought of leaving UK for the possibility of more playing time elsewhere ever cross Noah’s mind this offseason? He grinned at the question.
“No,” he replied immediately, a look on his face that backed up the declaration. “This is the greatest place on Earth. I love Coach Pope’s vision for me. He sees kind of the same path that I see. So that’s what we’re looking to do this year, and, on the way, win number nine.”
The quest for Kentucky’s ninth national championship will continue in Mark Pope’s second year as the head coach of the Wildcats, and Noah is fully aware that the realistic nature of that goal means he’s going to have to earn every second of playing time that will come his way during the 2025-26 season.
UK’s roster is loaded, with six transfers and four freshmen joining the four key returnees — Otega Oweh, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler and Noah — from last season.
Noah — listed as a 6-foot-5 forward as a freshman — will have competition from several smaller, quicker guards in the backcourt and a few longer, more athletic wings and forwards in the frontcourt. He was penciled in by most as UK’s 12th man going into last season, and his perceived standing on this roster isn’t that much higher.
Still, Noah is all in on the Wildcats, and Pope — as he showed last season — will give him every opportunity to earn his way onto the court. And the head coach has shown he has a plan for Noah’s future and a personal, emotional investment in helping him realize his potential.
“Trent Noah is made different, man,” Pope said recently. “He just is made different. He is a joy. And he’s coming back as a vet. One of the things that’s really challenging as a player is, you know, you come in as a freshman, and everybody’s older than you. And everybody knows more than you. And you can get tricked into thinking that that’s your college experience, because it’s the only one you have.
“And the magical thing about year two is you’re like, ‘Wow, everything is different.’ Like, ‘I’m the guy who knows what film session is like. I’m the guy who knows what practice is like. I’m the guy who knows what an individual workout is like. I’m the guy who knows what running through the SEC is like. I’m the one who knows what BBN is like.’ And it’s a beautiful thing, man, getting to year two. And especially doing it in our system.”
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Trent Noah’s path at UK
Again, Noah knows this won’t be easy.
UK’s backcourt features Oweh, the team’s leading scorer last season, along with key transfers Denzel Aberdeen and Jaland Lowe — some projections have all three of those guards in the starting lineup — along with Chandler and five-star freshman Jasper Johnson.
Possibilities for the 3 and 4 spots range from Tulane transfer Kam Williams — a 6-8 sophomore with NBA upside — to Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate to intriguing 6-11 perimeter player Andrija Jelavic, another possible NBA draft pick down the road.
Noah is a positional tweener, by comparison. But his game is still evolving.
Pope has made it clear that he wants Noah to put on more weight this offseason, with “18 pounds” the specific number that’s been thrown around. He was listed at 220 pounds last season — plenty big for his 6-5 frame — but Pope wants Noah to add more muscle, and the young Wildcat is already following that plan.
Adding that weight — or, more to the point, that strength — was the first aspect of his on-the-court evolution that Noah mentioned. He spoke of being bigger, stronger and faster by the start of next season, acknowledging how such a transformation could help in several areas on the floor.
“Yeah, I just feel like, overall, I mean, the SEC is a monster,” Noah said. “So you go in there, you’re playing really big, athletic players. So you just have to be able to match that. And it should just make every aspect of your game better.”
Noah is already an accomplished 3-point shooter. He hit at just 33.3% as a freshman, but that was a small sample size for a player making the transition from playing virtually every meaningful minute of every game of his life to not playing at all for long stretches of time.
He hit a huge 3-pointer in UK’s win at Tennessee last season, went 3-for-4 from deep against the Vols in the return game in Rupp — another Wildcats victory — and nailed a timely 3 in Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament opener, among other big shots in crucial moments.
Whatever the numbers say, the shooting threat is there.
How else can Noah contribute on the court?
He said Pope wants him to be able to put the ball on the floor more to initiate offense and create better looks for himself and teammates. And the coach sees ample room to grow defensively.
“We’ve kind of been talking about locking down the defensive end,” Noah said. “He thinks I can be a really good steals guy. He talks about the defensive IQ and then the defensive abilities (are) kind of two different things. And he thinks that I have a really good defensive IQ, and if I can just put those two together, then he sees a strong defender in me.”
Per Noah’s read, that means taking chances and emerging as more of a disruptor on defense.
“Maybe shoot a gap or two. Kind of doing things a little outside of the box,” he said. “Like, Otega is really good at, ‘He’s supposed to be here, but he takes a shortcut, and it ends up well.’ I guess you just got to take a little risk, and then you just got to see the play ahead.”
Finding that rhythm and comfort on the court is also important. To Pope’s point, that’s the type of thing that can only come with experience at the college level. Noah said he felt “very behind” from a defensive perspective last season.
“And now I have a year under my belt. I have a better feel,” he said. “I know where I need to be. And then hopefully it puts me in the right position before the ball even comes.”
Pope’s hope for year two
Amid a crowded roster filled with talent, Noah will have a leg up in at least one department.
He is a returning player in Pope’s system, and that can be a major advantage.
This time last year, Jaxson Robinson — the leading scorer at BYU in Pope’s final season there — was the only player with any previous experience playing for the new Kentucky coach.
As such, Robinson was a major resource for every other player on the roster before the games began. And, once they did, he was clearly the most comfortable Cat on the court.
Noah said he and the other three key returnees have taken on “the Jaxson Robinson role” since the rest of the team started arriving in town a few weeks ago, with that experience bleeding over into the first day of summer practice this past Monday.
“We know Coach Pope, and we know what he expects and his standards and his system,” Noah said. “So I feel like now the guys are coming to us and asking, like, how this goes and stuff like that. So I think it’s kind of big. We kind of have four Jaxsons this year. So this should make things a lot smoother.”
Noah had nothing but praise for his new teammates, saying that Pope had brought in “excellent human beings” for the second offseason in a row while predicting that “BBN will fall in love with the new guys” on the roster.
Of course, UK fans have already fallen in love with Noah.
The Harlan County native emerged as an instant fan favorite last season, and his big shots in key moments cemented his status as a “Kentucky legend” — as Pope likes to say — in the making.
Following that 3-for-4 performance in the win over Tennessee in Rupp Arena — with each make getting a bigger roar from the home crowd than the one that came before it — UK’s resident sharpshooter, Koby Brea, acknowledged the reality of the situation.
The Rupp fans got loud when he or any other Wildcat hit a 3-pointer, Brea agreed, but it was a different kind of sound, a higher level of volume, when Noah’s shots found the bottom of the net.
“For sure,” Brea told the Herald-Leader that night. “It’s a different energy that gets into that arena. And rightfully so. He’s from Kentucky. I’m sure he’s rewatched this moment in his head over and over again. And just for him to have that (experience), man, it’s crazy. The arena gets super loud, and then it’s just a momentum-shifter for us. You know, it’s like he hits a shot and everybody goes wild, and now we got to keep on going. So it definitely gives us a lot of energy.”
Brea and Robinson and a few other 3-point threats won’t be around next season, and that’ll leave a major void for Kentucky to fill beyond the arc. Noah will have an opportunity to help boost those numbers. And the expectation is that he’ll find a way to do so.
“I think the expectations for Trent are very high, because of his skill set,” Chandler said. “And you can’t really look back on last year. I mean, you can look at what he’s done — the potential he shows — but he’s going to be a completely different player. A better player. He’s had months to work on his game. And I think everyone in Kentucky knows what Trent is capable of, and so I think he’s just going to continue to get better. And he’s always exciting to watch.
“Even if there were times where me and him weren’t playing in games, there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that people don’t see. And the spurts that he shows.”
Chandler saw it last season. Oweh did, too. And so did Pope, a former UK captain who often smiles at the mere mention of Noah’s name, looking into his Kentucky crystal ball and sharing visions of success that will be remembered long into the program’s future.
“You can’t buy what it means to come to the University of Kentucky and to grow into what you can become,” Pope said. “… You can’t replicate it anywhere else. And then for the next 30 and 40 and 50 years of your life, there’s just nothing that can compare to it. And so I’m excited to watch Trent Noah. I know how it’s going to turn out. I know how it’s going to turn out in the next couple of years. I know how it’s going to turn out 30 years from now. And I’m happy for him. I’m so happy for him, because there’s some part of him that can see it and feel it and taste it and cares about it. And he’s gonna be really special. I love that kid so much.”
