When Mark Pope put Trent Noah back in the starting lineup against North Carolina Central, it wasn’t just a rotation tweak. It was a message.
Pope has been screaming all week about standards, effort and competitiveness. He has called this team out publicly and privately. Then he turned around and gave a big spotlight to the one guy he keeps describing with the same two words: all in.
Mark Pope keeps calling Noah 'all in' for a reason
“I like Trent every night,” Pope said after Noah posted 11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in a 103–67 win. “He’s all in. He’s fully invested. He’s going to give everything that he’s got every time on the floor and he’s pretty effective.”
The ankle injury that slowed Noah early in the year clearly set him back, but this version? This is the guy they thought they were getting.
He hit 3-of-6 from three, crashed the glass, moved the ball and gave Kentucky a stretch forward who actually plays like every possession matters.
Pope even singled out what he thought was the best defensive moment of the first half — and it belonged to Noah.
“I thought he probably had our best defensive play of the first half,” Pope said. “We finally got a third defender engaged.”
That may sound like coach jargon, but it’s exactly what Kentucky’s been missing. Pope has hammered how often the “third defender” is late, passive or just invisible. Noah stepped into that gap, made the rotation, and showed what buy-in looks like in real time.
The imperfect player who fits exactly what Kentucky needs
Pope wasn’t shy about Noah’s flaws either.
“Trent’s not a perfect player,” he said. “There’s some things that are complicated for him, areas of the game where he struggles, but he’s all in.”
That’s the entire point.
This Kentucky team is full of guys with better measurables, higher rankings, and bigger NIL numbers than last year’s group. What they haven’t had is a steady diet of players willing to do the thankless things and wear it when it goes bad.
Noah is that dude:
- He spaces the floor as a willing shooter.
- He rebounds his position and mixes it up physically.
- He doesn’t need the ball to impact the game.
- He’s not afraid to be the guy flying around when others stand and watch.
Against NC Central, Noah’s line wasn’t flashy, but it was grown-up basketball:
- 26 minutes
- 11 points
- 4-of-8 from the field
- 3-of-6 from three
- 6 rebounds
- 3 assists
- Zero turnovers
Pope has been begging for guys who are “living and dying for this team and this gym and this fan base.” He’s been blunt that too many players still don’t understand what it means to truly compete.
With Noah, there’s no confusion. That’s why Pope talked about him not just as a useful piece, but as a future voice inside the locker room.
“He’s a really important part of this team,” Pope said. “He’s got a chance to grow into a terrific player and a great leader and I’m proud of him.”
Is Trent Noah going to drop 25 in a marquee SEC game? Maybe not. But if Kentucky is ever going to look like a Mark Pope team again; sharing the ball, rotating on time, playing with real joy, the guys who “get it” have to be on the floor.
Right now, nobody embodies that more than the forward who just quietly earned his way back into the starting five.