Travis Perry, Trent Noah, and Walker Horn got in on the fun in Kentucky's win vs. Brown

There are few things the crowd at Rupp Arena loves more than Travis Perry and Trent Noah minutes. The Kentucky boys gave fans plenty of reasons to cheer in today’s win over Brown, combining for three three-pointers.

Perry, who shaved his mustache, played a season-high 13 minutes and finished with four points, two rebounds, and a steal. He came in with 8:48 to go in the first half when Kentucky was up eight. His three pushed the lead to 11. Mark Pope said Perry’s performance was a sign of things to come from the Eddyville native.

“The one thing I learned is that TP [Travis Perry] is going to keep working into these minutes at the point, and he’s going to keep getting more and more comfortable,” Pope told reporters in his postgame press conference. “Like, for him right now, he’s actually got so much more to his game than we’re probably seeing in the limited minutes he’s had so far because he’s still trying to just get over the newness of it. But as he settles in — and he’s going to settle in under fire — but as he settles in, he’s going to be very, very, very serviceable giving us some minutes at the point.”

Tom Leach asked Pope about Perry during their postgame conversation, which prompted a big cheer from the thousands of fans still in the arena.

“I was really proud of Travis. Travis is — here’s the thing, there’s just a little bit of a curve to just get comfortable on the floor in these games. And so Travis Perry is going to have a ton of moments this year where he really is a difference maker, and right now, he’s just barely getting enough minutes to where he’s getting more comfortable on the floor, but we saw some signs from him tonight of what he’s going to be able to do. And it’s really exciting, super exciting.”

Perry had some extended run alongside fellow freshman Collin Chandler, who didn’t score but dished three assists, pulled down a rebound, and got a steal in 15 minutes.

“Collin Chandler has made just an insane amount of progress on the defensive end,” Pope said. “It’s just, it’s brilliant. He was really good defensively and he was really good off two feet tonight. He was really good as a playmaker tonight.”

Noah played the fewest minutes of Kentucky’s freshmen but made them count, checking in at the 4:26 mark and playing the rest of the game, hitting two threes for a season-high six points.

“The thing I learned about Trent Noah, he’s just verified it again, is, if we ever need a three, I just need to sub him into the game and let him shoot it, because he does not need any warm-up time. He’s just gonna come bang one or two. And so we’re learning a lot about how the guys fit together.”

Walker Horn now leads the team in assists per-40 minutes pic.twitter.com/XMlNe4NDQW

— WT – Lamont Enthusiast (@WildcatsTongue) December 31, 2024

Even Walker Horn got a shoutout during Pope’s radio show for his incredible pass to Brandon Garrison for a dunk with 37 seconds left.

“Walker Horn, guys!” Pope exclaimed. “What! That was actually outstanding. It was an elite-level pocket pass. I told the guys after, you know, Walker’s been carving us up in practice a little bit, and you get frustrated, like, ah, our walk-ons are giving us trouble, but it makes me feel better to see him doing it to other teams too.

“These walk-ons we have, I’m telling you, like, we have three walk-ons on our team, Zach Two, Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn. And these kids come every single day, and they battle and compete in their every single rep, and they sweat like crazy to just get punched in the mouth every day by our guys. And they keep coming because they love Kentucky, and so for Walker to have little moments like that man is awesome because we win because of Walker Horn. Like he makes us win, and so it was really great to see him get a little highlight on the court today.”

The cherry on top of a feel-good win.

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