Tacko Fall

Tacko Fall
Fall in 2014
No. 24 – UCF Knights
Position Center
League American Athletic Conference
Personal information
Born (1995-12-10) December 10, 1995
Dakar, Senegal
Nationality Senegalese
Listed height 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
Listed weight 290[1] lb (132 kg)
Career information
High school Jamie's House Charter School
(Houston, Texas)
Liberty Christian Prep
(Tavares, Florida)
College UCF (2015–present)
Career highlights and awards
  • AAC Defensive Player of the Year (2017)

Elhadji Tacko Sereigne Diop Fall (born December 10, 1995) is a Senegalese basketball player who currently plays college basketball for the UCF Knights. At 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), he is among the tallest college players in the US.[2]

Early life

Born and raised in Dakar, Senegal, Fall moved from Senegal to the United States at age 16. Initially, he played soccer and had no interest in basketball. Fall visited the International Sports Training Institute at Dakar, known as ISTI-Dakar, in Senegal.

Fall lived with Ben Simmons for one year in Houston, Texas and played for his first organized basketball school team there. He trained with Simmons and NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon.[3]

Fall went to Liberty Christian Prep, in Florida, for his final two years of high school, and now plays college basketball at the University of Central Florida.[4]

Basketball career

High school

Fall is 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) and was still growing around his senior year, making him the tallest high school basketball player in the country while he played for Jamie's House Charter and Liberty Christian Prep.[5] Due to his height and eight foot (2.45 m) wingspan, Fall was one of the most highly scouted high school basketball centers in the country. Fall first played for Jamie's House Charter School in Houston, where his team won the state championship in 2012. Tacko played with ISTI all-stars summer travel team. He played in several NCAA certified events. Fall then attended with Liberty Christian Preparatory School in Tavares, Florida. With nearly forty different schools expressing interest in him,[5] Fall committed to the University of Central Florida in Orlando, who had officially signed him on October 28, 2014. He would play with the UCF Knights under head coach Donnie Jones.[6]

College

Fall playing for UCF against the UConn Huskies on February 11, 2017

Fall joined the UCF Knights as a center. He faced fellow 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) Senegalese center Mamadou N'Diaye in the tallest tip-off and match-up in US college basketball history in a game against the UC Irvine Anteaters. Both from Dakar, it was N'Diaye's brother, Ibrahim, who persuaded Fall to take up basketball.[7] By his sophomore year, Fall became the exclusive tallest player in college basketball thanks to N'Diaye's declaration to enter the 2016 NBA Draft. During his sophomore season, Fall would make considerable improvements on his playing style. In 2017, Fall was named American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. [8] On April 5, Fall decided to test his name for the 2017 NBA Draft, with the possibility of returning to Central Florida still available to him before the end of the draft lottery that year.[9][10] On May 24, 2017, Fall withdrew his name from consideration for the NBA Draft, to return to UCF for his junior year.[11] During his junior year, Fall injured his shoulder[12] causing him to only play in 16 games, totaling 351 minutes .[13]

College statistics

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2015–16 UCF 302617.6.750.000.5585.9.3.12.37.4
2016–17 UCF 363626.3.715.000.4629.5.6.32.610.9
2017-18 UCF 161621.9.767.000.4607.3.3.31.911.3

Source:[13]

Personal

Fall is a devout Muslim.[2] He maintained a 4.0 grade point average in high school.[14] Fall has aspirations of becoming an engineer for electronic companies such as Siemens or Microsoft, which currently makes a future in professional basketball unclear.[2] Fall comes from a tall family. His younger brother was 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) at age 7, while two of his uncles are 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m).[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Tacko Fall - 2016-17 Men's Basketball Roster - UCFKnights.com | (M) Basketball". www.ucfknights.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "The rise of 7-6 (and growing) Tacko Fall". Yahoo Sports. December 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Mastering the Rebound - Pegasus Magazine". Pegasus Magazine. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  4. ↑ "Tacko Fall - 2015-16 Men's Basketball Roster - UCFKnights.com | (M) Basketball". ucfknights.com. Retrieved 2016-11-18.
  5. 1 2 "UCF signs 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, America's tallest high school basketball player". Orlando Sentinel. November 12, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Tacko Fall". ESPN.
  7. ↑ "Tacko Fall and Mamadou N'Diaye faced off Wednesday for the tallest head-to-head matchup in college basketball history".
  8. ↑ Green, Shannon. "Tacko Fall wins AAC defensive player of year". Orlando Sentinel.
  9. ↑ Romero, Iliana Limón. "Tacko Fall to test NBA Draft waters with option to return to UCF". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  10. ↑ "UCF 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall to explore NBA draft options". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  11. ↑ "Tacko Fall to Return to UCF for Junior Season". UCFKnights.com. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  12. ↑ Green, Shannon (January 20, 2018). "Tacko Fall is out for rest of UCF basketball season". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  13. 1 2 "Tacko Fall College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Tacko Fall Bio". UCF Knights. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Meet the 7ft 5in basketball star who is just 18".
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