Stacy Noah was recently watching her nephew play basketball for Harlan County in the Jock Sutherland Classic at Lafayette High School in Lexington when it hit her.

“Last year at the same time I was watching Trent on that court playing in the same tournament and to be where we are today now is pretty remarkable,” Stacy Noah said.

Where she is today is watching her son, Trent, play for coach Mark Pope at Kentucky and making major contributions for the Wildcats.

In the last 12 months, Trent Noah helped Harlan County finish second in the state high school basketball tournament, finished as the state’s fifth all-time leading scorer (3,707 points), decommitted from South Carolina and eventually signed with Kentucky.

“All this could really be a Lifetime movie,” Stacy Noah said. “The state tournament was just an amazing experience. For our little small-town team to go as far as it did was unreal. Everybody rallied behind the team. It was so wonderful and uplifting for our community and I was super proud for Trent to be part of that.”

Trent Jones had a cousin on the team. His cousin, Kyle Jones, was the team’s head coach and another cousin was an assistant coach. Trent’s father, Dondi, was also an assistant coach on the team.

“It just made it more special to experience all that with people you love and had grown up with,” she said.

Now Trent Noah has created a buzz with fans across the Bluegrass with his overall play. He was a key contributor in two wins over Tennessee. His energy, physicalness, rebounding and 3-point shooting have helped make him a fan favorite and earned him the nickname “Mountain Mamba.” Pope thinks it is a “fantastic” name and Trent thought it was a “really clever” nickname that he likes.

His mother is also on board with Mountain Mamba.

“I think it is a clever play on words and represents what he is all about. Of course, he said he is going to call me ‘Mountain Mama’ now,” Stacy Noah said.

Going into this week, Trent Noah has played in 13 of UK’s 25 games. In the last six games he’s played 83 minutes and gone 10-for-17 from the field with 14 rebounds.

“He has a nice touch and is fearless. That kid has not backed away from any challenge thrown at him,” ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes said about Noah.

Noah’s 11-point, two-rebound game in Rupp Arena against Tennessee came when UK had three players out with injuries and he followed that up with a seven-point outing in the loss at Texas when he played 21 minutes.

“He loves it and has embraced it all. Nothing he has done has really surprised me,” Noah’s mother said. “I have seen Trent put in the time. I am just delighted his hard work has paid off.

“I had the unique perspective as his mom of going all over the country watching him play AAU and he has always risen to the level of competition he is playing. He puts in the time daily to get better and grow his basketball skill set.”

She said he has created a “buzz of excitement” in his home community again this season.

“I just love it when they announce his name and then say he is from Harlan County. It gives a lot of positive publicity for our county and that really makes me happy,” she said. “I get asked about him daily and always hear they are cheering and rooting for him. He is Harlan County and the people here really have embraced him.”

Trent Noah always wanted the opportunity to play in the SEC.

“He had a list of goals in his room for years and one was to play in the SEC. Now that dream has come true,” she said.

Stacy Noah went to UK. Her father, Perky Bryant, played football at Kentucky and has a “man cave” full of UK pictures and mementos. Trent Noah even wears jersey No. 9 because that is the championship number the team is chasing this season.

“Trent always has seen that Kentucky was the team my dad was rooting for. Again, it was a dream come true for him to play at Kentucky and wear the blue and white,” Stacy Noah said.

Her father, 83, is now in a wheelchair and prefers to watch the games on his big screen TV sitting in his recliner at home.

“My dad was really excited after that last win over Tennessee. He really enjoyed that and even watching at home he gets excited,” she said.

The Noahs have tried to attend all the games they can. They did not go to Texas last week, but never miss a home game and have gone to some away games.

“We have our room booked for Nashville (and the SEC Tournament),” she said. “We want to be as supportive as we can. Dondi is always nervous. If you are sitting beside him at a game, you have to move because he is always moving. He is very intense. He can look stoic, but internally he is going crazy. I am more about enjoying the experience, but I do get nervous, too. However, I don’t want anything to still the joy of this experience.”

Stacy Noah says the experience has been even better because freshman Travis Perry of Lyon County is also playing and contributing to the team’s success.

“It’s great having those two on the court together. They are going to be lifelong friends and that is a great part of this story,” Noah’s mother said. “They competed so heavily (against each other) in high school, but now they are teammates.”

She’s also proud that her son has not lost his humility or willingness to share his faith every chance he gets.

“I just love his heart and am so proud of him for being willing to give credit, glory and praise (to God) and recognizing he is blessed in this journey to be where he is now,” Stacy Noah said. “I have always said God’s hand was in this and opening different doors and allowing him to be where he is now.”

•••

Koby Brea came to Kentucky from Dayton known as an elite 3-point shooter and he has certainly been that this season. Brea is averaging 10.7 points and 2.5 made 3-pointers per game and had made at least one 3 in every game this season before not making one at Texas. He has 18 games with two or more 3s.

Brea’s shot making had him included on ESPN’s most recent mock NBA draft as a second-round pick for the first time this season. He put his name into the draft after last season but was never considered a potential draft pick, but a season at UK has helped change that.

“We have the greatest coach in the world, man. Just how positive he is and how much confidence he puts in players, I feel that a lot of times coaches take your confidence a little bit. He gives you the most confidence in the world,” Brea said.

“He wants you to go out there and play your game, he wants you to get better every single day. He really wants what’s best for you. I feel like everything we talked about before I came and throughout the summer, he’s lived up to it. He’s been nothing but good for me.”

Jack Givens, a former UK All-American, believes Brea can still do more.

“If he keeps doing what he has recently and even expands that, he’ll go higher on the draft boards. He’s 6-7 and the NBA guys want to see him show he can do more than just catch-and-shoot and he did that against Tennessee. I just want to see more of that from him because he really can shoot the ball and his defense is getting better every game,” the UK Radio Network analyst said.

Brea has had to do more due to injuries to point guards Lamont Butler, Kerr Kriisa and Jaxson Robinson but Pope said being spurred on that way is not a bad thing. However, he took a step back in the loss at Texas when he went 0-for-6 from the field and had only four points in 35 minutes.

•••

Coming off a 4-8 season, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops didn’t mince words about what lies ahead for his program

“You know how tough it is to coach and survive in this league. I’ve been very proud of the growth and the progress we’ve made. This last year, we hit a little hiccup, and I’m not very proud of that. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get us back on track,” Stoops said on ESPN. “Our team needs to get bigger, needs to get stronger, mentally tougher.”

Stoops, 57, took over at UK in 2013 after coach Joker Phillips went 2-10. Stoops won 10 games in 2018 — something UK had not done since 1977 — and again in 2021.

“Going into my 13th year, what you do realize is the urgency that you know what needs to be done today. There is so much to do. We’re attacking it with our players, there’s weightlifting, there’s the mental toughness, there’s the fourth quarter drills coming up,” Stoops said.

“But also, with our coaches, like, what are we doing right? How can we continue to build on that? Where do we fall short? How do we get that corrected? There’s just a lot to do.”

Stoops said he was not proud of his team’s lack of toughness and discipline last year.

“Those are things we gotta get back to, the foundation, the roots of who we are. Be tough, be physical, be accountable to each other,” Stoops said.

The problem for Stoops is that UK’s 2025 schedule looks even more difficult as the Cats host Texas and Tennessee, playoff teams in 2024, and play at Georgia, another 2024 playoff team. UK hosts Ole Miss and plays at South Carolina, two teams that were close to making the playoffs. The November schedule has games at Auburn, Vanderbilt and Louisville along with a home game with Florida.

Most of Kentucky’s 2025 opponents figure to start the season in the AP Top 25.

•••

Kentucky coach Mark Pope understands that coaching can be about more than numbers. Sometimes the intangibles play a huge role in a team’s success.

Pope knows that sometimes coaches have to train/teach players to do more than they believe they are capable of doing.

“I think that great coaches have a magical touch about that. We are a work in progress here,” Pope said. “What really makes great coaches is, it’s just like great teachers. Great students are probably (the) way more important component of a student-teacher relationship. It’s great students, it’s students that are hungry and passionate and willing and humble and curious that we talk about all the time.

“And you also get to points in your journey where you might be more willing and desperate to listen and try a new path, right?”

Maybe that is what has happened at times this year at UK as Pope and his teams have been short-handed since early December due to various injuries.

“I’m going to get really philosophical and that’s why it’s so fun to coach because the game kind of rips you to pieces and it puts you in a really vulnerable spot and it makes you humble,” Pope said. “It makes you willing to try new things and desperately search for answers. And those are really fun students to have.”

Former UK All-American Kenny Walker was playing in the NBA when Pope played at Kentucky and helped UK win the 1996 national title.

“I had a chance to work out with him. He was a blue-collar worker and maybe worked harder than other more athletic guys on that team. His heart and ability to compete impressed me then,” Walker said. “He is a tremendous coach but off the court the way he interacts with fans, guys in the media, he is absolutely unbelievable.

“He played here for Rick Pitino and understands this culture better than any coach here outside of Joe Hall, who was born and raised here. No question in the future he has to get better overall talent, but the coaching adjustments are terrific. Everything I like about basketball, he does. He gets Kentucky fans will not accept anything less than going out and competing and he gets the very best out of his players.”

•••

Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione said at his team’s media day that sophomore left-handed pitcher Ben Cleaver was the returning player off last year’s College World Series team that had made the most improvement going into this season.

Mingione backed up that belief by picking Cleaver, who pitched in only 6 1/3 innings in relief in 2024, as one of his three weekend starting pitchers before the season started last week.

“Ben Cleaver has been our guy that if you asked, ‘Coach Minge, what returning pitcher’s made the biggest jump?’ I’d tell you that It’s been Ben Cleaver,” Mingione said. “He’s throwing the ball as well as anybody right now. Three and four pitches for a strike, so I’m excited to see what he brings and he’s going to have a huge role on our team this year.”

•••

Quote of the Week: “LSU is the No. 2 team in the nation, and we have the potential to have a really good upset. I hope it is sold out because it is a huge opportunity for us,” UK senior gymnast Hailey Davis, on hosting defending national champion LSU Friday in Memorial Coliseum.

Quote of the Week 2: “He plays hard. He accepts the contact. Teams want to be physical with him, but he just keeps doing what he does. He leads them with effort. I love what he does,” UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens, on junior guard Otega Oweh, who has scored in double figures every game this season.

Quote of the Week 3: “Whenever he’s guarding the ball, the rim protection, you don’t really even need it because he can guard one-on-one with anybody. He’s really one of the best defenders I’ve seen,” UK freshman Trent Noah, on point guard Lamont Butler.