Trent Noah sees the whole picture as a Kentucky basketball sophomore
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky basketball player Trent Noah has increased expectations as a sophomore.
- Noah averaged 2.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per game as a freshman last season.
- Noah has been one of UK’s top shooters during summer and fall practice.
Trent Noah feigned a shot, sent his defender flying and drained the 3-pointer, punctuating the stylish score with a celebratory gesture toward the opposing bench.
Yes, this sequence occurred weeks before the official start of Noah’s sophomore season at Kentucky and within the controlled-scrimmage setting of UK basketball’s annual Blue-White Game.
But in a nutshell, this is what’s expected from Noah in his second act at his home-state school. Less processing and more production.
And nothing about the Harlan County native’s offseason with the Wildcats will slow down this momentum.
As Mark Pope’s second Kentucky basketball team preps for its curtain raiser Nov. 4 against Nicholls — with Friday night’s exhibition against preseason No. 1 Purdue serving as an immediate test — there’s hope that Noah, who made 24 appearances off the bench for UK as a freshman, is ready to take a major step forward.
“He just is a vet that just knows exactly who he is,” Pope said of Noah after last week’s Blue-White contest. “He’s got incredible physicality around the ball where he can protect it, and he runs hard. He’s clearly just a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous shooter... He just brings this calm to our team. I think he’s going to bail us out of situations, like Koby (Brea) did last year a little bit.”
The 6-foot-5 Noah, whom UK lists as a forward, emerged late in his freshman season as a difference maker off the bench, despite meager season averages of 2.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per contest.
Last season, as Kentucky transitioned from nonconference play to SEC action, Noah endured a stretch of only playing twice in an 11-game span. But Noah became a trusted part of Pope’s rotation after logging three offensive rebounds and a steal in 12 minutes off the bench in a late-January loss at Vanderbilt.
“I feel like last year, a lot, I was kind of caught up on thinking of where to be and what to do,” Noah told the Herald-Leader this month in a wide-ranging interview. “But now it just flows a little better and I kind of have a little upper hand, because I know what’s going to happen before it happens.”
Breakout moments followed for Noah, none bigger than the 11 points he scored and trio of 3-pointers he made in a February home win over a top-five Tennessee team.
As one of four returnees on a talent-laden Kentucky squad with Final Four aspirations, Noah’s task is to earn consistent playing time — and to make the most of it when it comes his way.
“I got to learn so much from the older guys when we had a lot of vets on the team last year. I got to just sit around and use them as a resource and a tool, to just pick their brain and learn so much,” Noah said, adding that he’s made strides toward becoming a vocal leader for his teammates. “Because college basketball is a different animal than high school or AAU or anything like that. So to be able to use them to my advantage and be able to learn and grow from them was huge.”
Trent Noah is expected to take a step forward with UK basketball
At the outset of his freshman season, it was unclear what role Noah would have for the 2024-25 Wildcats. He was a late offseason pickup for Pope, joining Kentucky in May 2024 after decommitting from South Carolina, where he originally signed as a four-star high school recruit.
A bevy of injuries to UK, specifically in the backcourt, scrambled the intended plans for Noah’s freshman-year development. But ahead of his sophomore season, Noah has received plenty of buzz.
“I really challenged him to be more of an aggressive playmaker,” Pope told the Herald-Leader about his offseason message to Noah. “... Stacking those decisions as a ballhandler and a playmaker, he’s doing that consistently right now.”
Data from the tracking system (conveniently called a Noah system) that’s used to chart Kentucky’s practice shots at the Joe Craft Center confirms that Noah has been perhaps the best UK basketball shooter of the offseason.
A recent viewing of these results by the Herald-Leader showed that Noah ranked alongside Kam Williams — the transfer sophomore guard from Tulane — when it came to a variety of data points.
Noah and Williams both ranked at the top of the leaderboard in splash percentage (which measures how straight the ball is shot), arc (a 45-degree entry angle for a shot is optimal) and shot depth (11 inches deep in the basket leads to the most makes).
“It makes it easy whenever I have so many good guys around me,” Noah said of his scorching shooting this offseason. “And then our play design and our concepts, it’s just a gold mine for a shooter.”
That Noah is even in the same shooting conversation as Williams is noteworthy: Williams made 63 3-pointers at a 41.2% clip last season as a freshman at Tulane. This makes Williams the most accomplished distance shooter on the current UK roster.
“Trent, he’s been one of our best guys in practice every day,” junior forward Mouhamed Dioubate, an Alabama transfer, said. “Trent, since the beginning of summer to now, he’s probably, one of the guys that’s made the biggest improvement. Especially with his confidence, he’s been probably the best shooter in our practice.”
Noah has also undergone a physical transformation, undoubtedly the result of spending more than a year in a college strength and conditioning program. Still, if a significant year-over-year improvement is to occur, it will be rooted in Noah’s work ethic.
And it’s happened before.
Kyle Jones, Noah’s high school coach at Harlan County, had a front-row seat to Noah’s development as a prep player. Jones told the Herald-Leader that a transformation took place for Noah between his sophomore and junior years.
“That’s when his recruitment really started jumping up,” Jones said of Noah. “He changed his body, he trimmed down... And then his senior year, he just took off.”
The numbers back this up. Noah went from averaging 9.9 rebounds per game as a sophomore to 12.8 as a junior. Then, he went from averaging 26.5 points per contest as a junior to 29.9 points as a senior, when he led Harlan County to the championship game of the Sweet 16 state tournament at Rupp Arena.
Jones said it was common for Noah and his father, Dondi, to spend time after practice in Harlan County’s gym working on Noah’s ballhandling, conditioning and shooting.
“Trent deserves everything that he’s gotten, all the credit he’s getting right now. He’s put in more time than any kid I’ve ever seen,” Jones said. “He’s just a tireless worker. I think that’s what you’re seeing his development continue to prove.”
As one would expect, Jones and others in Eastern Kentucky kept close tabs on Noah’s freshman season at UK. Jones noted the impact Noah provided when his number was called, and the pride Noah competed with.
Noah is one of five Kentucky natives on this season’s UK team.
“That’s part of being a Kentucky kid,” Jones added. “They allude to that a lot, but I don’t think people understand the impact of what it means to a kid that’s from Kentucky to put on a UK jersey. Every time Trent steps on the floor, it’s for not only his school, but the entire state.”
What are expectations for Trent Noah as sophomore at Kentucky?
So, what are reasonable expectations for Noah in his second college season?
Barring injuries, Noah won’t be a starter. Kentucky’s veteran backcourt is loaded with experience from the likes of Pittsburgh transfer Jaland Lowe, preseason SEC Player of the Year Otega Oweh and newcomer Denzel Aberdeen, who won a national championship last season at Florida.
In the frontcourt, fellow returnee Brandon Garrison is expected to start at center, at least until transfer Jayden Quaintance completes his recovery from a torn ACL. Dioubate, the Alabama transfer, is also a penciled-in starter.
Depth is set to be a calling card for Pope’s team this season, with five-star freshmen Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno, the aforementioned Williams, another returnee in Collin Chandler and international arrival Andrija Jelavic all in the mix to get early-season looks.
Simply put, Noah must state his case to be part of the UK rotation. He intends to lean on his experience to do so.
“Every coach has a different way of how they want to run their offense, how they run their defense,” Noah said. “Now, instead of trying to study and retain all that information, I already know it. It’s kind of second hand now, so now I can do less thinking and more playing.”
For all the strides Noah has seemingly made in his all-around game, his clearest path to playing time comes down to shooting.
It remains his strongest attribute. And on a team that will need to prove its shooting skills, especially from 3-point range, it’s the area where Noah can most easily separate himself.
“They believe that shooting is my superpower,” Noah said of the message from UK coaches. “So that’s what I’m trying to ride... I’m trying to hunt 3s.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM.
