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 268 lb (122 kg)
Career information
High school Jamie's House Charter School
(Houston, Texas)
Liberty Christian Prep
(Tavares, Florida)
College UCF (2015–present)

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 was and is among the 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.

Fall joined ISTI-Dakar and was brought to the US by Simmons with the help of his organization, the Ben Simmons Sports Foundation.

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.[2]

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).[3]

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. 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,[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] 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.[4] He is a devout Muslim.[1] He maintained a 3.6 grade point average in high school.[7][8] 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).[9]

References

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