Chris Beard raves about Zach Day after elevating from walk-on to scholarship

Ole Miss returns three players from last season’s roster that went on to make the Sweet 16. One of those, who’s now on scholarship in Oxford, is Zach Day, a redshirt freshman guard in year two with the program.

Chris Beard spoke highly of Day during his press conference last week. He applauded the work ethic he has shown in going from walk-on to scholarship player already to prove that he could play and produce at some point for the Rebels.

“With Zach Day? You know, proud to say, you know, Zach did a great job in our program,” said Beard.

“I mean, the story is, you know, Zach earned a scholarship here, worked hard every day in practice, developed into a player that we believe can be an SEC contributor one day. And so that’s a pretty good story, you know, for a guy from Midland, Texas, to turn down a lot of scholarship offers and decide to bet on himself and come to Ole Miss where we weren’t promising anything,” said Beard. “For him to just keep working and working and working and now, he’s on his second year in college, redshirt freshman year to be on scholarship in the SEC? You know, I think that’s a hell of a story and he deserves all the credit. So we have a lot of confidence. He transformed his body last year physically. He’s got a chance to be a good shooter.”

Day did not appear in any games last season for Ole Miss. That’s after joining the program as a walk-on following his high school career at Midland Christian.

Now, Day could play for what’ll be a new-look team next season for the Rebels. That’s with double-digit players leaving the program, either with no more eligibility or through the transfer portal, and with seven players transferring in for a Top-20 portal class and four prospects signing in a Top-25 recruiting class.

Still, of all those additions, Day could now have a role among them with a year’s worth of work to get on scholarship. That’s the first step for him with what Beard expects to see him do at some point for the Rebs.

“I think there’s a future for Zach at Ole Miss, for sure,” Beard said.