Kentucky native Trent Noah is sticking with the Wildcats for the 2026-27 season
A fan favorite in Rupp Arena over the past two Kentucky basketball seasons is staying in Lexington.
Harlan native Trent Noah announced Sunday afternoon that he will return to the Wildcats for his junior year, making him the only UK player that will have played in all three seasons of the Mark Pope era.
Noah was a standout at Harlan County High School and came to UK at No. 5 on the state’s all-time career scoring list. He was originally signed with South Carolina, but John Calipari’s departure two years ago led to the hiring of Pope, who made Noah one of the final additions to his 2024-25 roster.
The 6-foot-5 forward has appeared in 51 games over the past two seasons — including three starts as a sophomore during the 2025-26 campaign — and will add some continuity to Pope’s 2026-27 roster amid an offseason filled with change.
So far, seven players from last season’s team have entered the transfer portal: Collin Chandler, Mouhamed Dioubate, Brandon Garrison, Andrija Jelavic, Jasper Johnson and Jaland Lowe, as well as senior guard Denzel Aberdeen, who would need an NCAA waiver or rule change to be granted a fifth year of college eligibility.
Four of those players have already committed to new schools: Aberdeen (Florida), Chandler (BYU), Garrison (Alabama) and Jelavic (Ohio State), while Dioubate is scheduled to visit St. John’s this week.
UK will also lose leading scorer Otega Oweh, another senior, and sophomore post player Jayden Quaintance is expected to enter and remain in this year’s NBA draft.
Pope has received commitments to return from 6-8 wing Kam Williams and 7-footer Malachi Moreno, the starting center on last season’s team. Moreno will go through the NBA draft process first, however. He faces a May 27 deadline to withdraw his name from the draft pool and retain college eligibility for next season.
Braydon Hawthorne (another 6-8 wing) and 7-1 forward Reece Potter are also expected to be back in Lexington after sitting out this past season as redshirts.
Noah came to UK in a three-player freshman class alongside Chandler and fellow Kentucky native Travis Perry, but both of those players have moved on from the program. Perry transferred to Ole Miss last year and is in the portal once again this offseason.
Chandler, Garrison, Noah and Oweh were the only Wildcats recruited as scholarship players to be part of the program for both of Pope’s seasons as Kentucky head coach so far.
As a freshman on a team filled with veterans, Noah played in 24 games and averaged 2.7 points and 1.9 rebounds, shooting 33.3% from 3-point range. He went 3 for 4 from deep and scored a season-high 11 points in a win over Tennessee in Rupp Arena that season.
As a sophomore, Noah was in Pope’s starting lineup for the season opener, though he suffered an injury in that game that kept him sidelined for UK’s next two contests. He started two more games later in the nonconference portion of the schedule — wins over North Carolina Central and Indiana — before moving back to a bench role for the remainder of the season.
Noah averaged 3.0 points and 2.3 rebounds, once again shooting 33.3% from 3-point range this past season. He scored a career-high 16 points in a win over Tennessee Tech on Nov. 26.
His playing time decreased later in the season, especially after Williams made his return from a broken foot for the Cats’ postseason run. With Williams back in the rotation, Noah played in only one of Kentucky’s five postseason games, going 0 for 2 on 3-pointers in three minutes of action during UK’s loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
After playing at least eight minutes in all three of Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament games last year, Noah did not get off the bench in either of the Cats’ March Madness games in 2026.
Pope continued to praise Noah’s work ethic throughout the season. In the locker room following UK’s season-ending loss to Iowa State, the Harlan native showed no hard feelings regarding his lack of playing time down the stretch after being a starter in game one.
“I guess that’s kind of the beauty of college basketball,” Noah said. “I mean, we have so many good players on this roster. And the lineups shake around and stuff like that happens. So, yeah, I just feel like that’s another way for me to grow and improve as a player and as a person.”
Despite being a career 33.3% 3-point shooter — he was 29 for 87 at Kentucky — Noah’s coaches and teammates have raved about his ability to make shots from the perimeter, and Pope lamented that he was not able to get as many open looks this past season due, in part, to the injury to Lowe, projected to be the team’s starting point guard, and the negative effect that had on UK’s offense.
Noah will have two seasons of remaining eligibility at Kentucky.
This story was originally published April 12, 2026 at 1:47 PM.
