Kentucky walk-ons Walker Horn, Zach Tow exemplify what college sports are all about

Walk-ons are the unsung heroes of any college basketball team. They won’t see the floor all that often, but they go through the same practice routines, workouts, film sessions, long travel days, and the ups and downs of a season just as much as the guys who actually play do. They don’t do it for the fame (although at Kentucky, fans know the walk-ons by name), but for the experience that will last a lifetime.

Kentucky men’s basketball will honor a couple of those walk-ons on Saturday for Senior Day. Fourth-year guards Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen will draw the loudest cheers from Rupp Arena as two of the Wildcats top contributors, but Walker Horn and Zach Tow deserve the same applause.

Horn, in particular, has experienced more change in his four years at Kentucky than most walk-ons. His college career started with two years under head coach John Calipari and finished with two years under Mark Pope. Horn has shared a roster at UK with NBA players such as Amari Williams, Koby Brea, Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Antonio Reeves, Justin Edwards, Adou Thiero, Oscar Tshiebwe, Cason Wallace, and more. He’s witnessed game-winners and crushing defeats. The son of current Northern Kentucky head coach Darrin Horn, Walker could very well have a long basketball career himself after college.

“Walker’s been awesome. I mean, he’s born to coach, right?” Pope said during his Thursday press conference. “If that’s the direction he goes, he’s going to be a big-time coach. He’s smart. He sees everything that’s going on. He can connect with every single guy on our team, wherever they come from, whoever they are. He’s got a nice, steady demeanor about himself, but he’s got a competitive fire. He’s been so invaluable. We put him in charge of game-day responsibilities that he handles all by himself, where he’s delegating responsibilities to players on the team.

“He just has been elite, and he’s made huge shots, too. He’s made last-second, end-of-shot clock, buzzer beaters. He’s got a really tremendous career here.”

Horn has appeared in 20 total games during his Kentucky career, stepping on the court for 23 minutes. But it wasn’t until his senior season that he finally got a shot to fall. Horn hit the aforementioned shot-clock buzzer-beater late in the game against Tennessee Tech earlier this season to etch his name in the history books for good.

WALKER HORN GAME MVP

FIRST CAREER POINTS pic.twitter.com/aJwgFvUhEK

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) November 27, 2025

As for Tow, he only knows what it’s like to play at Kentucky under Pope. A native of Madisonville who played in the Sweet 16 state tournament as a high schooler, Tow is living out a life that most kids across the Bluegrass have only been able to dream about. He worked hard for it, too. When Pope first arrived as head coach, he held walk-on tryouts. Tow beat out dozens of other candidates for the spot and hasn’t looked back since.

Like Horn, Tow also hit his first college field goal this season. His three-pointer with 32 seconds left against North Carolina Central capped off a 103-67 victory for the ‘Cats. After this school year wraps up, he’ll head off to law school to begin the next chapter of his life.

“Zach is like the story that you champion, where I don’t even think he was hooping anywhere, besides the rec center, just getting it done at the Seaton Center, just taking names,” Pope said. “And then he comes to walk-on tryouts with 60 other guys and earns himself a one-day contract that we renewed every single day for an entire season last year until he finally got a jersey, and he’s made shots in games and stepped on the floor in games. 

“And then the biggest, most epic success ever is he’s been going through this law school process, application process, and the whole team has been with him every step of the way, to where last week, when he got the news that he’d been accepted to UK Law School, he announced to the team, and the guys were close to tears. I think every single one of our guys felt like they were going to law school, too.“

The landscape of college athletics is changing at rapid speed. It doesn’t matter which sport — walk-ons find ways to create special moments and stories that exemplify what college sports should be all about. But as the new era pushes forward, it’s a position that might not be around much longer. Pope even said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to include walk-ons with his future teams. Roster spots are becoming increasingly valuable in the NIL era.

“I don’t know if it’s something we can hold onto, things are different now,” Pope said. “But if it is, it’s worth it, because they have an impact on the guys on the team, they grow into incredible, incredible human beings. I hope that we find some form of space or something for that.”

Horn and Tow will be honored ahead of Saturday’s Senior Day game against No. 5 Florida. They’ll jump through the paper hoops and join Oweh and Aberdeen on the Rupp Arena floor one last time, surrounded by family and close friends as they wave goodbye to the BBN.

This game has massive implications on Kentucky’s SEC Tournament and even NCAA Tournament seeding, so it’s yet to be seen if they’ll have an opportunity to check into the action, but even if they don’t, their impact on the program will remain regardless.

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