COLUMBIA — Two days after he thought he completed his basketball roster for next season, Lamont Paris is back on the recruiting trail.Â
Trent Noah, a four-star forward who signed his letter-of-intent in October, asked for and received a release from his South Carolina commitment, he announced in a social media post on Tuesday. The 6-foot-6 rising freshman thanked Paris and the Gamecocks for their recruitment of him but expressed his wish to try another avenue.Â
"I will be re-opening my recruitment with hopes of pursuing basketball opportunities closer to home," Noah said.Â
Since Noah is from Baxter, Ky., it seems rather clear what Noah's next step will be. He grew up a three-hour drive from Lexington and the University of Kentucky, but then-coach John Calipari never expressed serious interest in him despite a high-school career that made him unofficially the fifth-ranked schoolboy scorer in the state's illustrious history.Â
Calipari is now at Arkansas and new Wildcats coach Mark Pope needs to fill his roster. At present, there's only one Kentucky native on it — Travis Perry, the state's all-time leading scorer.Â
Noah was rated as high as No. 105 in the country after a brilliant career at Harlan County High, where he averaged nearly 30 points per game as a senior and also chipped in 10.5 rebounds. Despite that, only South Carolina, Seton Hall and Stanford were major schools recruiting him; his other finalists were Dayton, St. Louis, Richmond and Western Kentucky.Â
The Gamecocks now have one open scholarship for next season.Â
