Shots aren't falling for Trent Noah, but he's impacting the game in other ways

Trent Noah is in a shooting slump right now. With just one contest left before the calendar flips to March, Kentucky’s sophomore guard has yet to make a field goal in February, but he’s still played in every game this month for the Wildcats. It’s what Noah does when not shooting the ball that has Mark Pope remaining confident in the Bluegrass native.

“I thought he was really good at South Carolina,” Pope said of Noah on Thursday. “In fact, the last couple of games, I think he’s come up with balls, contested balls on the glass. His ball security has been really good.”

In Kentucky’s 72-63 road win against South Carolina earlier this week, Noah grabbed five rebounds in his six minutes of action. In the game before against Auburn, also on the road, he hauled in another five rebounds, along with an assist, in 19 minutes. Noah saw 15 minutes in a win against Tennessee a few weeks ago, recording a pair of steals and knocking down a couple of free throws in the first half. He has just one turnover in 57 minutes played this month.

Noah truly does have a knack for finding the ball. At this point, his being in the right place at the right time is more a skill than it is luck. At 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, he isn’t afraid to stick his nose into a mess and go after a loose ball. Now he just needs to pair that with some made shots.

He will eventually have to hit open 3's if he wants to play actual rotation minutes not due to injury…but credit to Trent Noah for the way he competes defensively and seems to have a knack for tracking down rebounds.

FIVE rebounds in six minutes abasing South Carolina! pic.twitter.com/wYpXLepjum

— Brandon Ramsey (@BRamseyKSR) February 26, 2026

Through 23 games this season, Noah is still shooting 34.1 percent from deep as 44 of his 55 shots this season have come from three-point range. But he’s just 3-14 from deep since SEC play began, his last making coming in the road win over Arkansas on the final day of January — the one where he shushed the Razorback crowd on his way back down the floor. Noah is 0-9 from the field since then.

Pope is confident Noah will find his groove, though. It’s easy to forget that he ranks in the top five all-time in the state of Kentucky in high school scoring. He shot 43 percent from deep as a senior at Harlan County. Noah didn’t just forget how to shoot, but he’s undoubtedly in a funk right now. All three of his missed triples against South Carolina were shots he’d make 50 times in a row during practice.

“Probably want him to be a little more daring, a little more aggressive offensively,” Pope said. “I don’t worry about Trent Noah making shots. He’ll make shots, he’s gonna make shots through the course of it. So I spend zero time on that but I do think he’s given us positive energy, positive physicality, positive ball security.”

There’s also the fact that Pope needs Noah to remain aggressive offensively. Noah is either the eighth or ninth man in the rotation right now for Kentucky, depending on the matchup. He’s going to continue to see some minutes off the bench. If the shots start falling, he can swing a game in UK’s favor.

“We’re gonna need him, like we need him,” Pope added. “We have a very, very small, limited roster right now. So he’s important for us.”

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