‘He delivered.’ Without Trent Noah, the Wildcats might not have beaten Arkansas
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mark Pope trusted reserve Trent Noah, who had 9 points and 7 rebounds vs. Arkansas.
- Noah’s minutes rose after limited SEC early role; he had defensive rebounds and a key 3
- Team depth and free throws late preserved road win, showing resilience in 2025-26.
Just keep waiting, and it’ll happen.
For weeks, that’s been Mark Pope’s message on the topic of Trent Noah.
Even as the injuries piled up for his Kentucky basketball team and others got bigger opportunities to make a difference, Noah — a fan favorite from Harlan — was still waiting for his breakthrough.
Through UK’s first six SEC games, he played a total of six minutes and never took a shot. The sophomore forward finally made a 3-pointer — and came up with three steals — in the Wildcats’ 72-63 win over Ole Miss last weekend. That was something. But, statistically speaking, it still wasn’t much.
Next game out, Noah hit another 3-pointer, but he was 1 for 5 from the floor in that game, and his Cats lost 80-55 at Vanderbilt, one of the lowest points of this 2025-26 season.
So, not much was expected of Noah going into Saturday’s game at No. 15 Arkansas, the top-ranked team in the SEC and a 6.5-point favorite over the Wildcats at tipoff. Noah might be needed for some spot minutes — Pope’s roster is down to nine players, after all — but anyone banking on a breakout game against John Calipari’s Razorbacks was in the minority.
And then came the Saturday morning shootaround. Something seemed a little different.
Following Kentucky’s eventful 85-77 victory over the Hogs on Saturday night, Pope was flanked by Otega Oweh and Malachi Moreno in the postgame press conference.
“I think these guys would say the same thing,” he told those assembled as the two UK players turned to look at their coach. “When we came to the gym this morning — you know, sometimes you see guys’ eyes light up — and it looked like Trent thought the rims, literally, were like seven feet wide. Did you guys feel that from him?”
Oweh nodded. Moreno nodded.
“He was feelin’ good, for sure,” Oweh agreed.
Once the game began, he was lookin’ pretty good, too.
Noah played 19 minutes — his season high for a competitive game — and tallied nine points and a career-high seven rebounds during that time on the court. It all happened in what turned out to be Kentucky’s best win of the season and arguably the biggest of Pope’s tenure as UK’s coach.
Afterward, Pope praised Noah for all the things he can do that go unnoticed.
“Trent’s got a great physicality about him,” he said. “And he’s a great ball-protection guy. And he was great on the glass for us tonight. … He had two big defensive rebounds early, in his first rotation. And you kind of felt like, ‘Oh, he feels right.’”
In the end, when Kentucky needed as much as it could get from everybody who had something to give, Noah made the big plays necessary to keep the Cats on the path to victory.
“He delivered,” Pope said.
It’s been a long time coming.
Noah made just two shots across Kentucky’s six nonconference matchups against high-major competition, and one of those came in the 35-point loss to Gonzaga, a night when pretty much the entire game was played in garbage time.
He didn’t get off the bench in UK’s first two SEC games and then played just one defensive possession at the end of a blowout win over Mississippi State before removing himself from the floor with a knee issue. His playing time increased in a win over Ole Miss and the loss to Vanderbilt — the first two games without fellow sophomore wing Kam Williams, who’s sidelined with a broken foot — but there still wasn’t a ton of production.
Noah persevered.
“It makes it easier whenever — I mean, I have coaches that are always lifting me up, and my teammates are always lifting me up, and I get to compete with them in practice,” he said Saturday night. “But that’s kind of the beauty of basketball. There’s so many highs and lows, and you get to take those skills and apply them to your life. Because that’s how life goes. Life always isn’t how you want it to be. So you just gotta take the hand you’re dealt and make the best of it.”
He did that in Bud Walton Arena.
While Noah scored nine points, he still managed only one make from the field. But it was a big one.
After securing four defensive rebounds in his first five minutes on the court — those boards coming amid UK’s onslaught to open up a 13-point lead — Noah hit the floor for his second shift.
The Cats clinging to a 32-29 lead, Noah missed a floater after driving the baseline. On the Hogs’ ensuing possession, he kept a loose ball alive and got it to Oweh — a play that didn’t show up in the box score — and Kentucky scored on the other end.
Noah grabbed another defensive rebound on Arkansas’ next possession, and then Denzel Aberdeen found him on the wing for his first (and only) 3-point attempt of the game. He nailed it to give the Cats a 37-29 lead, and then he turned toward the Arkansas’ student section and put a finger to his lips.
On the postgame radio show, a giddy Jack Givens recalled the play and praised Noah’s ability from the perimeter — “one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen,” said the UK great — before giving the current Cat a chance to talk about the shot.
Noah spread the love around, pointing out that Oweh was the one who got it all started with his penetration.
“The defense has to give so much attention to him, because he’s one of the best players in the country,” he said. “And it makes it easy when I get to play alongside him. And then DA at the point … but yeah, we got so many players. So the moments — whenever the ball comes, and the opportunity is there — I just wanna make the most of it.”
Noah played 10 minutes in the pivotal second half. He missed his only shot but grabbed two more rebounds and went 6 for 8 from the foul line. Two of those free throws broke a 59-all tie midway through the period. And then he hit two more with 8:02 left to give UK the lead for good.
“It was a beautiful team win,” Noah said. “It’s always good to get one on the road, and then in an environment like this — it just kind of showed how resilient our group is. And I’m super, super happy to go to war with them every single night.”
