There is already a Kentucky native on Kentucky's 2024-25 roster with Lyon County's own, Travis Perry, but now we’re going to be honored to have a second one on the same team. According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Harlan County star Trent Noah has finalized the paperwork and he will spend his freshman year at the University of Kentucky.
According to 247 Sports, Noah is a 3-star prospect who is ranked in the top 150 nationally at 132nd overall and is rated as the 27th-best small forward in the nation. Not to forget, he’s also tabbed as the second-best player in all of Kentucky, just behind KY Mr. Basketball Award winner, Travis Perry.
Mark Pope has made it abundantly clear that he will recruit highly talented players from the state of Kentucky as the head coach of this program. Unfortunately, he wasn't in that position during Trent Noah's original recruitment, so he committed to play for South Carolina back in October of 2023. Trent Noah took his official visit to the Gamecocks program on October 22nd and signed his National Letter of Intent just nineteen days later on November 10th, 2023.
Pretty much for his entire senior season it was heavily debated on why he didn’t receive much interest from Kentucky under its former head coach, and many felt like he didn’t get the attention that he deserved for the state’s beloved program. Things really started to get spotlighted come this past March when he led Harlan County to its first-ever state championship game in the 2024 KHSAA Sweet Sixteen.
After Kentucky’s coaching carousel this spring, it appeared Trent’s route to Lexington became more likely than ever before. Fast forwarding to this week, it was kind of sporadic but on Tuesday he was officially granted a release from his NLI with South Carolina and decided to reopen his recruitment.
" I will be reopening my recruitment with hopes of pursuing basketball opportunities closer to home.” he said in his online post.
“I sincerely appreciate Coach Paris' genuine investment in me, both on and off the court, and his compassion and professionalism during this process. Please respect my decision. Thank you.”
Trent Noah had several Division 1 offers coming out of high school with South Carolina being the obvious one, but the others include Butler, Seton Hall, Western Kentucky, California, Coastal Carolina, Dayton, EKU, Indiana State, East Tennessee State, Miami (OH), Morehead State, NKU, Richmond, Stanford, and UCF. The offer from Kentucky was nonexistent.
Noah managed to become Harlan County's all-time leading scorer this past season as he averaged nearly 30 points per game at 29.9, along with 10.4 rebounds a game as well. He was able to accomplish this by shooting an incredible 56% from the field and 43% from behind the three-point line.
“Trent Noah is one of the elite shooters in this class,” Pope said. “He is a tough, hard-nosed player with a special physicality. As an eastern Kentucky native, Trent will bring a grit, toughness and determination to the program that is representative of this state. We’re looking forward to Trent joining this talented group.”
Trent Noah probably isn't going to come into this season with a starting role, however, I do think he will see the court quite a bit. He has improved sevenfold in his four years at Harlan County and from what I saw from him in the state tournament I don't think it's crazy to imagine Noah getting some minutes as a freshman. I think this is an awesome pickup for Mark Pope and the coaching staff for the future stability of the roster. Also, from a fan perspective, this is going to give Kentucky fans another reason to root for the Cats and its new coach in his first season at the helm.