At Kentucky’s recent Big Blue Madness, two players received perhaps the loudest roars from the crowd when they were introduced. Naturally, it was Kentucky natives Trent Noah and Travis Perry on the receiving end of those ovations from the Big Blue Nation.

Noah was an outstanding player for Harlan County High School, finishing his career as the state’s fifth all-time leading scorer. He broke out in last year’s KHSAA Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena, leading his team to a runner-up finish.

Ironically, it was Perry’s Lyon County team that beat Noah’s Harlan County squad in the title game. Kentucky’s 2024 Mr. Basketball and the state’s all-time leading scorer, Perry had 27 points in the title game to help his team to the first state title in school history.

Now, Noah and Perry are teammates at Kentucky and, as evidenced by their ovation at Madness, they are already fan favorites.

After originally committing to South Carolina, Noah got a second chance to be a Wildcat when Mark Pope was named head coach. There’s no place he would have rather been than in Lexington.

“Kentucky basketball means the world to this state and to me,” Noah said.

Noah does admit that it took him a while to adapt to playing against older, more mature players.

“Overall, I would say adapting to the speed of the game,” Noah said. “College basketball is completely different than high school basketball or AAU. But my coaches and my teammates, when things go wrong, are always there to pick me up and build me up and I think that’s what makes this so special.”

UK head coach Mark Pope said that it took Noah a while to start knocking down shots in practice. Noah appreciated the coaches standing behind him as he went through those struggles.

“It definitely took some time but I’m so thankful that I’m playing for the coaching staff that I am,” Noah said. “Coach Pope and the staff constantly instill confidence in me and my teammates. It’s also hard to go from guarding high school guys to guarding someone like Jaxson Robinson. We have so many older guys on the team and once you guard them, it makes you better. It takes weeks and months to get acclimated to the speed of the game but I’m in such a good situation because the coaches believe in me and I appreciate that.”

Perry originally committed to former UK head coach John Calipari. However, Calipari departed for Arkansas and Kentucky hired Pope. Was there ever any hesitation from Perry about where he would go to school?

“There really wasn’t. This is a special place, obviously,” Perry said. “You know that growing up here, watching Kentucky basketball.  Things fell into the right path for me – great system, right coach and great guys to play with.”

Now that he’s been in Lexington for a few months, has it lived up to the expectations?

“I think they’ve lived up very well. I think it’s maybe even better than what I expected,” Perry said. “You never know what you’re going to get coming into college basketball from high school basketball. The main thing for me is how great of people we have here. From the top down, from Coach Pope, all the way down to our managers. Those guys really care about each other, care about getting us better, we care about getting each other better. I think that’s the main thing for us is the bond we have.”

While Noah and Perry are both still learning a lot about the college game, the pair can also teach a few things to the veterans on this team.

“This is the most experienced team in Kentucky basketball history. So that’s pretty awesome for a guy like me or Trent of Collin (Chandler) coming in that’s never played a game of college basketball,” Perry said. “For me, I know a lot about Kentucky basketball, Trent does as well, we come in with that knowledge so we can give our feedback on that and what it really means. It’s been really good for us to be able to show that to them and them taking us under their wing and show us all the ropes for college basketball.”

Noah and Perry are bound to be fan favorites this season and beyond.