Tacko Fall
| File:Tacko fall.jpg Fall in 2014 | |
| No. 24 – UCF Knights | |
|---|---|
| Position | Center |
| League | American Athletic Conference |
| Personal information | |
| Born | December 10, 1995 Dakar, Senegal |
| Nationality | Senegalese |
| Listed height | 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) |
| Listed weight | 300 lb (136 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Jamie's House Charter School (Houston, Texas) Liberty Christian Prep (Tavares, Florida) |
| College | UCF (2015–present) |
| Stats at NBA.com | |
| Stats at Basketball-Reference.com | |
Elhadji Tacko Sereigne Diop Fall (born December 10, 1995) is a Senegalese basketball player who currently plays college basketball as a freshman for the UCF Knights. At 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), he was and is among tallest high school and college players in the US.[1]
Early life
Born and raised in Dakar, Senegal, Fall moved from Senegal to the United States at age 16. Initially, he played soccer (football) and had no interest in basketball. Fall visited the International Sports Training Institute at Dakar, known as ISTI-Dakar, in Senegal.
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Ben Simmons in Senegal at ISTI-Dakar, with Fall
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ISTI-Dakar team photo
Fall joined ISTI-Dakar and was brought to the US by Simmons with the help of his organization, the Ben Simmons Sports Foundation.[citation needed]
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 the likes of NBA top 50 player Hakeem Olajuwon.[citation needed]
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Fall training with Hakeem Olajuwon
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Training with Eric Riley
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Weight training in Houston, 2012
Fall then was sent to powerhouse basketball school, Liberty Christian Prep (LCP), in Florida, for his final two years of high school, and now plays college basketball at the nearby University of Central Florida (UCF).[citation needed]
Basketball career
High school
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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At Texas State Championship
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In ISTI uniform
Fall then attended with Liberty Christian Preparatory School in Tavares, Florida. With nearly forty different schools expressing interest in him,[2] 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.[3]
College
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.[4] 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.
Personal
Fall stood 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) and is still growing, making him the tallest high school basketball player in the country while he played for Jamie's House Charter and Liberty Christian Prep.[2] He is a devout Muslim.[1] He maintained a 3.6 grade point average in high school.[5][6] Fall has aspirations of becoming an engineer for companies such as Siemens or Microsoft, making a future in professional basketball unclear.[1] Fall comes from a tall family. His younger brother was 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) aged 7, while two of his uncles are 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m).[7]
References
- ^ a b c "The rise of 7-6 (and growing) Tacko Fall". Yahoo Sports. December 16, 2014.
- ^ a b "UCF signs 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, America's tallest high school basketball player". Orlando Sentinel. November 12, 2014.
- ^ "Tacko Fall". ESPN.
- ^ Tacko Fall and Mamadou N’Diaye faced off Wednesday for the tallest head-to-head matchup in college basketball history
- ^ "Meet Tacko Fall the 7ft 5in basketball star who is still growing". Daily Mail Online.
- ^ "Tacko Fall Bio". UCF Knights. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- ^ Meet the 7ft 5in basketball star who wears size 22 shoes, has an 8-foot wingspan, eats pizzas covered in hamburger... and he's still growing
External links
