Why Trent Noah is ‘Mr. Kentucky’ to a new generation of UK basketball players
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Teammates and coaches credit Trent Noah as a leader and vocal presence.
- Noah arrived with a reputation as a strong three-point shooter.
- Entering Year 3, Noah emphasizes defense and developing a creator vibe.
Two years ago, Trent Noah was a Kentucky basketball newbie.
So was just about everyone else on the roster, to be fair, due to a near-total turnover in team personnel following a coaching transition from John Calipari to Mark Pope that left walk-ons Walker Horn and Grant Darbyshire as the only returning players.
Even among that group, however, Noah was nearly an afterthought, a late addition to fill out a roster packed with veterans. Of the three freshmen on the team, the Harlan native was the least regarded.
This time last year, Noah was back, but fellow returnees Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler and Brandon Garrison had more experience on the court and higher expectations entering Year 2. And Horn was still around for his fourth season, a holdover from the Calipari era who was also there for the beginning of Pope’s tenure.
Noah, again, often got lost in the roster shuffle when looking toward the upcoming season. On the court, few were looking to him for guidance.
Now? Things are different.
Pope’s third UK team should boast plenty of talent and even more upside. There are exciting names up and down the roster. Whether or not those newcomers were familiar with Noah’s game coming in, it didn’t take long for them to notice his value. And whether or not they showed up looking to the Kentuckian for help, they found some from the jump.
Entering Year 3 of his UK basketball journey, Noah wants to be a leader of these Cats.
As the first week of summer practice reached its end, freshman guard Mason Williams acknowledged that having some veterans around had made the transition from high school to college easier. As he spoke on the subject, the teenager referenced the only player on the 2026-27 roster who has two years of Kentucky basketball already under his belt.
“Trent Noah is an absolute winner,” Williams said. “He’s been looking like Mr. Kentucky. That’s what we call him: ‘Mr. Kentucky.’ He’s just been looking like the most fundamental, the best player at practice, the easiest player to play with. He’s been on my team back to back (days), and I’ve been excited, because I haven’t lost (with) him.”
Williams didn’t need to double-check the bios to know that Noah holds the distinction as the only third-year Wildcat on the team. And whatever any of these newcomers knew of his game coming in, that experience matters, especially this time of year.
“He knows the system,” he said. “He’s been here for three years. Well, this is going to be his third year. He knows everything. He’s the loudest guy on the floor. Coach (Mark) Fox told him he’s got to be the loudest, because he knows everything. He knows all the rotations. He knows all the calls. He’s been phenomenal with that.”
It’s not just the freshmen who are all ears, either. The respect for Noah extends all the way across the roster. Asked if anyone had surprised him through the first three weeks of summer practice, star transfer Milan Momcilovic — a college senior with more big-game experience than anyone on this team — said it was Noah.
“I didn’t watch a whole lot of Kentucky last year,” he said. “I watched a little bit. So I saw him play a little bit here and there. But coming in this summer, I think he’s been the best player so far. Coach showed a slide of like points per possession, and he’s number one by a long shot. Honestly, I’m looking at him and learning from him a little bit. Because he’s been here three years. He’s a veteran in this program. He knows what to do.”
While Noah hasn’t had an abundance of in-game opportunities to showcase his skills, he came to UK with the reputation of being a knockdown 3-point shooter and has wowed teammates in practice over his first two seasons.
Momcilovic has the reputation of being the best shooter in all of college basketball, with 101 starts over three years at Iowa State on his résumé and an unreal stat line from beyond the arc (136 makes at a 48.7% clip) last season.
As he’s settled into Pope’s system, he’s looked to Noah for guidance.
“He understands everything,” Momcilovic said. “So I think it’s big to just watch him and see how he goes about it. Obviously, I have my own wrinkle to what I do, but I kind of understand it from him and take off from there.”
Momcilovic and Williams aren’t the only ones singing Noah’s praises.
“Probably the guy that’s getting talked about the least that is showing out right now is Trent Noah,” Pope said on a CBS Sports podcast last week. “He’s physical. And he can really shoot it. Part of the issue last year was, when we lost our point guard, we lost the real creator vibe on our roster, it hurt guys like Trent.
“Trent might not manufacture a lot of shots, but if shots can be manufactured for him, he’s going to make them.”
That’s part of a bigger plan entering Year 3 of this relationship.
Noah acknowledged that he came to campus this summer with the intention to lead.
“I just get to show them the ropes outside of basketball,” he said. “... I feel like, trying to come into a new system, you’re trying to do so much thinking and digesting and soaking everything in what we’re trying to do. And now it’s just kind of a second nature, second language (to me) — like what we’re supposed to do, where we’re supposed to be.”
He wants to use that knowledge to help his teammates. He also wants to use it to help himself.
Noah has had some chances, to be sure. He made big shots in the regular season as a freshman and parlayed that into meaningful minutes in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
He actually started the season opener as a sophomore, but an ankle injury in that game pushed him to the sidelines for several days. His play was sporadic as the season wore on, and he logged a total of just three minutes across five tournament games in March.
Hype and hyperbole around the Harlan native are nothing new, but Noah’s shooting ability could keep him on the court, even if others on this roster live up to their promise this season. The Cats should have more spacing on the floor than they did last year, when point guard Jaland Lowe suffered an October injury that ultimately ended his season, tipping off a domino effect that led to clutter all over the court.
But Noah knows playing time won’t be predicated on emerging solely as a perimeter threat. He needs to do more as an upperclassman. He’s out to prove that he can.
Perhaps most importantly, he feels like he’s becoming a better defender.
“I just think a lot of it comes with being older — naturally getting bigger, stronger and faster,” Noah said. “Your body developing, the game slowing down. Learning little niche tactics on how to make up for whatever is not your strong suit. I just think being around the game at a high level for a time, you learn different things.”
Offensively, he says he’s brought more of a “creator vibe” — referencing Pope’s biggest offseason buzzword — to the court. Noah said 2-point field goal percentage has been a major emphasis for the Cats this summer, so he’s working on his touch around the rim. BYU was No. 8 nationally in that stat during Pope’s final season there. UK was 68th in the stat last season.
“I would say my game has grown the most playing off my shot fake,” Noah said. “I feel like I’ve realized how it’s become a lot easier to kind of get in the 15 feet area and in, and kind of draw in the defense to create shots for other people. … And then working on my touch around the rim. Like, 6- to 8-footers, those shots are so crucial. And we’ve had a big focus on that.”
He’s shot 33.3% from 3-point range in each of the past two seasons, but his talent is bigger than those numbers indicate, and getting more looks would likely go a long way toward raising that percentage. Teammates have said he’s keeping pace with Momcilovic from deep so far.
Noah knows he has his doubters, too.
A general question about the criticism toward last season’s team, especially from vocal segments of the fan base, was met with a more personal response. Noah said he doesn’t seek out the social media angst, but he’s seen enough to have a general sense of what’s been said.
He tries not to let that affect him.
“There’s like zero bit of me that’s trying to prove other people wrong,” he said. “I wake up every day, and I do it every day, to prove the people in my little foxhole right, because they believe so much in me. And, like, Coach Pope believes so much in me. And kind of doing it for yourself is way bigger than doing it for other people. So, I mean, when you look at it in that perspective, it kind of shifts the narrative. It shifts your mind.”
Two years ago, he says, the game was moving too fast. Now, he feels like he’s finally caught up.
And some of the other Cats are clearly following his lead.
“I feel like I’m the most confident I’ve ever been. And that’s just a testament to being older and to my work that I’ve put in,” Noah said. “I mean, for 21 years I’ve had this dream. So I feel like I’m super confident; I’m ready to go. I’m so hungry. And I feel like, this year, as a team and individually, we’re going to break through.”
