With Kam Williams out, Trent Noah is Kentucky basketball’s next man up
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- UK basketball sophomore Trent Noah is expected to see an increase in playing time.
- Noah is next in line for minutes for UK following an injury to Kam Williams.
- Noah began this Kentucky season as a starter, before his playing time decreased.
It’s Trent Noah time again for Kentucky basketball.
At least that’s the expectation from those in and around the UK program following the broken foot suffered by sophomore Kam Williams during Wednesday night’s game against Texas.
Early in the second half of what became an 85-80 home win for Kentucky over the Longhorns, Williams broke his foot while running down the court on a defensive possession. Postgame, head coach Mark Pope announced the injury news and added that Williams will “be out for a while.”
For a UK squad that’s already been battered by injuries this season, it means Noah — a 6-foot-5 sophomore from Harlan County — is the next man up in the rotation.
“He’s going to have to play now,” Pope said of Noah during his postgame press conference Wednesday. “And he can. He’s a good player. He actually is going to help us win.”
After seeing action in 24 games as a freshman last season, much was expected of Noah ahead of his second college campaign. He started both of UK’s exhibition contests and the first game of the regular season. But he suffered a left ankle injury during that opening night contest against Nicholls. That setback threw a wrench in Noah’s early-season plans, and he hasn’t fully bounced back from it.
While Noah also started against North Carolina Central on Dec. 9 and Indiana on Dec. 13, his playing time has seen a sharp decrease since that home win over the Hoosiers. Noah only has two appearances in SEC play for a combined five minutes. All of his playing time in league action has come in the past two games, a road win at Tennessee and Wednesday’s home triumph over Texas. Noah hasn’t scored since a Dec. 23 home win over Bellarmine, which was UK’s final nonconference game.
But with Williams on the mend, UK is in need of healthy bodies to play. After averaging 17.8 minutes in UK’s first 10 games, Williams had averaged 22.1 minutes in nine games since.
Junior point guard Jaland Lowe is out for the season following a series of right shoulder injuries that will require surgery. Sophomore big man Jayden Quaintance has missed Kentucky’s past four games while dealing with swelling in his surgically repaired knee.
Additionally, UK apparently still plans to redshirt junior center Reece Potter and freshman forward Braydon Hawthorne. And once you remove guard Walker Horn and forward Zach Tow from the equation, that leaves just nine healthy contributors, including Noah, for the Wildcats ahead of Saturday home game against Ole Miss.
“We just go out and play,” junior forward Mo Dioubate said of the Cats’ ongoing injury absences. “We’ve been saying it all year, all summer: We’re the deepest team in the country. So I don’t think that should just stop because we’ve got a few injuries, a few guys out. I think we’re still able and capable of doing great things this year.”
Still, that may require Noah to stand up and deliver.
“He started games for us. He’s a really good player,” Pope said of Noah. “And so, he’s going to get more minutes and he’s going to be really great. He’s going to help us.”
In the fall, Noah told the Herald-Leader that he felt the game had slowed down for him.
“I feel like last year, a lot, I was kind of caught up on thinking of where to be and what to do,” Noah said in October. “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.”
Opportunities to showcase his growth have been few and far between. But now, it’s likely Pope will call Noah’s number on a regular basis. Noah’s practice performance indicates that he’s ready for the challenge, his teammates said.
“One thing about TN, he has always been consistent for us in practices,” Dioubate said. “He’s been one of our most consistent guys in practice with making shots and just playing his game.”
“He’s just kept his head up and continued to play well in practice,” said sophomore guard Collin Chandler, who is one of four holdovers from Pope’s first UK squad along with Noah, junior forward Brandon Garrison and senior guard Otega Oweh.
“(Noah’s) been great. Like, if you came and watched him at practice, you wouldn’t know that he was frustrated. You wouldn’t know what’s been going on with him in his life. So he’s stayed ready for the moment, and now we are going to need him a lot.”
Following Kentucky’s Blue-White game in October, Pope praised several aspects of Noah’s game.
“He’s got incredible physicality around the ball where he can protect it, and he runs hard,” Pope said then. “He’s clearly just a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous shooter... He just brings this calm to our team.”
So far, there’s been some evidence pointing to this from Noah, but almost all of it has come during nonconference play against overmatched opponents. Noah has played seven times for UK this season against quality foes, logging a combined 56 minutes with nine points and eight rebounds.
Those stats don’t jump off the page. But Kentucky’s current injury situation means Noah likely will be a key part of Pope’s plans for the foreseeable future. As long as that’s the case, Noah will get the chance to prove he can help a resurgent UK team turn the tide of what once seemed to be a lost season.
“This will be a great opportunity for him to step up,” Dioubate added about Noah. “He’s been asking for this all year, so the moment’s right here for him. I think he’s locked in on that and good things will come.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
