‘Zach deserves a jersey.’ Little-known UK basketball walk-on plays in win against LSU
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Game day: No. 19 Kentucky 95, LSU 64
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU in Rupp Arena.
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The closing seconds of Kentucky basketball’s blowout home win Tuesday against LSU on Senior Night featured a surprise twist: the debut of a new Wildcat.
Most UK fans likely aren’t familiar with the name Zach Tow, but he’s been around the program all season long.
Late last August, Kentucky held an open tryout for UK students to participate in. This offered a potential pathway toward joining head coach Mark Pope’s first Kentucky squad.
The tryout came and went. Then, in October, a new UK player was on the court for the Wildcats’ Pro Day event at Memorial Coliseum.
That was Zach Tow, who is listed as a 6-foot-5 junior forward from Madisonville on UK’s roster sheets that are distributed at games. Tow is also listed on ESPN’s roster of Kentucky players, but he’s not on UK’s online roster.
Tow played basketball at Madisonville-North Hopkins High School and, as a senior during the 2021-22 season, averaged a double-double with 12.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.
This made Tow the third walk-on on this season’s UK team, along with junior guards Grant Darbyshire and Walker Horn, both of whom were walk-ons for John Calipari’s final two Kentucky teams.
“He showed up and he fought through 60 guys in a bunch of workouts and then earned the right to come to practice and be on a one-day contract throughout the entire course of the season,” Pope said of Tow after Tuesday’s game. “He came and battled every single day, 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.”
But until Tuesday night against LSU, Tow hadn’t actually been in uniform for a UK game. Tow previously occupied his seat on the Kentucky bench in a sweatsuit, and he hadn’t yet worn the No. 20 jersey that he was listed as having on ESPN and in UK’s media materials.
That changed against LSU.
As Pope told it after the game, UK fifth-year guard Lamont Butler was instrumental in Tow getting to finally put on a Kentucky jersey. Butler also had a big role in revealing the honor to Tow.
“Lamont Butler came to me about a month ago and said, ‘I think Zach deserves a jersey.’ He had not got a jersey all year. He was on a one-day contract,” Pope recalled. “… Lamont had the pregame speech before the game today and he presented Zach with a jersey. The guys lost their mind. Zach was in stunned wonderment … If you spend one day in this jersey and BBN embraces you for life. And that’s really cool. It’s like nowhere else. This basketball community of BBN is like nothing else.”
Getting the jersey is one thing. But checking into a game and officially being recorded as a UK basketball player is another.
Tow also got to experience the latter on Tuesday.
As Kentucky’s 95-64 win neared its conclusion, LSU fifth-year forward Derek Fountain sneaked up behind Kentucky freshman guard Collin Chandler near the LSU basket and stole the ball from him as the clock was running out. The ensuing play saw Fountain attempt to score on a layup, only for Chandler to be called for a foul.
After a brief review by game officials, 0.2 seconds was put on the game clock and Fountain was sent to the line for two free throws.
Fountain missed his first attempt from the foul line. Then, in between free throws, Pope took the opportunity to put all three UK walk-ons — Darbyshire, Horn and Tow — into the game.
Tow made his way to the scorer’s table, high-fiving UK assistant coach Mikhail McLean along the way, before tucking in his newly awarded jersey and taking his spot along the lane.
Tow shared a joke and laugh with Horn as they watched Fountain make his second attempt from the charity stripe.
“Man, that was special,” Chandler said afterward of Tow getting a UK jersey and game appearance in the same day. “… (Butler’s pregame speech) made me really excited to go out, actually, to provide new energy for the team going out. That might’ve been what led to such a great outing tonight. So it was fun.”
Chandler in-bounded the ball to Tow as the final 0.2 seconds of Kentucky’s home season ran off the clock.
“I feel like he’s been a big part of this team, even though he doesn’t get the notice that we get,” UK sophomore forward Brandon Garrison said about Tow. “In practice, you know, he’s helping us a lot, killing us in practice, scoring (and) stuff on us. And off the court, just helping. Like, if I need something, I can call him and count on him. But it was just an amazing moment for him. You know, he was very excited. (We were) excited for our guy.”
Tow’s older sister, Kaylee, was the 2017 Kentucky Miss Softball out of Madisonville-North Hopkins and went on to be named a three-time All-American during a distinguished playing career at Alabama.
“There’s nobody in the world who takes these jerseys more seriously than I do,” Pope said on UK’s postgame radio show. “And the fact that Zach was willing to come here and do that, do what he’s done for our team, all year long. Never asking for a single thing. He earned that jersey.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 12:15 AM.
