by LARRY VAUGHT
“He’s a vet that knows exactly who he is. He just brings this calm to our team. I think he’s going to bail us out of situations like Koby did last year,” Pope said after the Blue-White Game.
Noah won the 3-point shooting contest at Big Blue Madness and hit two 3-pointers in the Blue-White Game but also had three assists, two rebounds and no turnovers.
“He’s been one of our best guys in practice every day. Since the beginning of summer to now, he’s probably one of the guys that made the biggest improvement, especially with his confidence,” Alabama transfer Mo Dioubate said.
But the best part is that Dioubate confirmed that Noah had been “probably the best shooter in practice” since summer workouts started, something Pope confirmed earlier when he revealed Noah was hitting about 60 percent from 3-point range in practice.
“I think it really is, statistically, going in almost every time,” Pope said.
Yet it was Noah’s three assists and no turnovers that excited Pope more in the Blue-White Game than the 3-pointers the former Harlan County standout made.
“A night where we really struggled in our assist-to-turnover ratio, Trent’s a 3-0. And he shoots 50 percent from the 3-point line. He’s got incredible physicality around the ball where he can protect it. And he runs hard,” Pope said. “He’s clearly just a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous shooter.”
Noah had a lot of rebounds in high school but admits he also became a more aggressive rebounder his freshman season.
“Just looking for little things that I could do to impact the game. It doesn’t take very much skill to run in there and put your body on the line and try to get a loose ball or something like that,” Noah said. “The offense isn’t run through me now like it was in high school, so I had fine little things to help me contribute to the team and maybe save a possession to help the team out. I also learned to stay level headed. You just can’t get too high or too low.
