Lamont Butler moves in to "chase No. 9"; Trent Noah will wear No. 9

Kentucky’s point guard has arrived on campus and he understands the assignment. Lamont Butler moved his belongings into the Wildcat Coal Lodge yesterday and shared a message for the Big Blue Nation on the Kentucky Basketball Twitter account. By now, it should sound pretty familiar.

“What’s up, BBN? I just landed in Lexington, coming all the way from San Diego. I’m really excited to be here. I already feel the love already and I’m here because I understand the assignment. We’re gonna chase No. 9 and we’re going to win championships and hang banners in Rupp Arena.”

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Butler comes to Kentucky from San Diego State, where he helped lead the Aztecs to the 2023 national championship game, hitting a game-winner at the buzzer to knock FAU out of the Final Four. Even though San Diego State lost to UConn in the finals, Butler’s shot will go down in Aztec history. Last season, he averaged 9.3 points, 3.0 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game and was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.

Once Butler entered the transfer portal on April 24, Mark Pope was in hot pursuit, taking the private jet out west to make his case for Butler to be a Cat. It worked. Butler committed to Kentucky on April 26. Now, he’s on campus with a very big goal in mind: No. 9. Earlier this week, Jacob Polacheck spoke to Butler’s parents, Lamont Sr. and Carmicha, who said that when Lamont Jr. first arrived at San Diego State in 2020, he told Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher that he wanted to go to a national championship game. Now? He wants to win one. Complete the assignment, so to speak.

Trent Noah to wear No. 9

By our count, nine players have moved into the Lodge with three to go: Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, and Koby Brea. Robinson is scheduled to arrive on June 10 and Williams on June 15. We’re still efforting to find out when Brea gets to town.

As they settle into their new digs, a lot of the players have shared their jersey numbers on Instagram. Freshman Trent Noah was the latest, posting last night that he will wear No. 9, aka that assignment they all understand.

Noah will be the first Kentucky player to rock No. 9 since Glen Parker in 1943-44. Why the long gap? Last summer, the NCAA did away with the rule that limited players to numbers with the digits 0-5, which was made in the 1950s to simply officiating signals to the scorekeeper (five fingers on each hand). Now, players can wear any number from 0-99.

Here’s our running list of jersey numbers:

• Kerr Krissa: #77
• Otega Oweh: #00
• Lamont Butler: #1
• Jaxson Robinson: #2
• Amari Williams: #21
• Brandon Garrison: #10
• Trent Noah: #9

Freshman orientation takes place for Noah, Perry, and Chandler today and classes start for the entire group on Monday, June 10. Summer practices begin one week from then on Monday, June 17.

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