In the world of college basketball, tomorrow is never guaranteed.

With the modern transfer portal attracting thousands of athletes every year, almost half will fail to find a new home and are left teamless the next season. In 2023, only 45% of the players in the portal found a new team.

On top of that, players around the country get cut every season from their team for conduct or academics, or simply give up the game due to a lack of opportunity or contentment with their situation.

None of that is to mention the ever-looming threat of a serious injury, the likes of which can cut a college career short — like was the case with UK’s Jaxson Robinson — or end a season far too early — like Kerr Kriisa’s injury.

Despite all of that, however, few players have exemplified the “one day at a time” mentality this season quite like Kentucky walk-on Zach Tow.

Hailing from Madisonville, Kentucky, Tow’s journey to the hardwood of Rupp Arena was a tad different than that of his fellow Cats and even his fellow walk-ons.

Wrapping up his high school career at Madisonville North Hopkins High School, Tow committed to Kentucky not as a basketball player, but just as a regular student, giving up a potential goal of Division-I basketball.

As a student, Tow worked his way up to be president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity until a special opportunity presented itself.

Following the exodus of John Calipari and every scholarship player on the roster, newly hired head coach Mark Pope had a herculean task ahead of him building a new squad to take the court in 2024-25.

Utilizing the transfer portal, Pope did, in fact, build a strong roster for the season, but opted to try something a little different for the team’s walk-on situation.

Walk-ons, players without athletic scholarships, are an often underappreciated backbone of every major college basketball team around the country, serving as important pieces in practice to better the team and serve as a “scout team” for what formations opposing teams will come out in.

While Pope was able to lean on returning walk-ons Walker Horn and Grant Darbyshire, he desired at least one more walk-on to complete his roster and intended to accomplish this task by hosting an open tryout to anyone who wished to attend.

The post garnered plenty of social media attention, with fans jokingly throwing their hats into the ring and even multiple UK football players stating they would be at the tryout.

Once it came and went, little to no word of how that tryout went made the rounds… until UK’s Pro Day.

With the ragtag group of stars coming together to put their talent on display, one unfamiliar Wildcat was on the court with them: Tow.

Tow’s journey to the court didn’t end there, however.

See, even after making the team in the open tryout, Tow wasn’t quite on the same level as even his fellow walk-ons.

“Zach Tow actually came to walk-on tryouts,” Pope said. “He showed up and fought through 60 guys in a bunch of workouts and earned a right to come to practice and be on a one-day contract throughout the entire course of the season.”

Not listed on UK’s official team page, never being considered for garbage-time minutes and not even having his own Kentucky jersey, Tow was truly on the roster one day at a time. Despite this, his determination never wavered.

“He came and he battled every single day,” Pope said. “Never said a word, never missed a rep, never missed a practice, never was an issue, never asked for anything. Just came and fought every single day.”

Tow’s determination didn’t just catch the attention of his coach, however, as his teammates, too, saw the work he was putting in and the way he supported his squad.

“Zach comes every day and helps us out,” Kentucky freshman Collin Chandler said. “He’s been so good, (I’m) thankful for him.”

With Kentucky big Brandon Garrison calling Tow a “big part of this team,” all of his hard work finally paid off just before the Cats’ senior night showing against LSU.

“I had some of the guys come to me about a month (ago), in fact, Lamont Butler came to me and said, ‘I think Zach deserves a jersey,’” Pope said. “He hadn’t had a jersey all year, he was on a one-day contract. So, in our pregame speech, (Lamont) presented Zach with a jersey and the guys lost their mind. Zach was stunned in wonderment.”

Chandler also spoke of Butler’s pregame speech and cited it as perhaps one of the biggest reasons Kentucky was able to come out and decimate the Tigers 95-64 in its largest SEC victory all season.

“Lamont had our pregame speech and he came out firing away,” Chandler said. “(He said) we gotta come into this game pissed off and said he was pissed for Zach that (he) hadn’t put on a jersey yet and that’s when he surprised him with it. It provided new energy for the team going out, that might have been what led to such a great outing tonight.”

Garrison echoed Chandler’s sentiment.