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Tacko Fall

Fall in 2014
No. 24 – UCF Knights
Position	Center
League	American Athletic Conference
Personal information
Born	(1995-12-10) December 10, 1995 (age 29) Dakar, Senegal
Nationality	Senegalese
Listed height	7 ft 6 in (2.29 m)
Listed weight	310 lb (141 kg)
Career information
High school	Jamie's House Charter School (Houston, Texas) Liberty Christian Prep (Tavares, Florida)
College	UCF (2015–2019)
Career highlights and awards
AAC Defensive Player of the Year (2017) Third-team All-AAC (2019)
Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball Reference

Elhadji Tacko Sereigne Diop Fall (born December 10, 1995) is a Senegalese basketball player who played college basketball for the UCF Knights. At 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), he is one of the tallest living people in the world.

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.

Fall played his first organized basketball in Houston, Texas and trained with NBA Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon.

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 (UCF).

Basketball career

Given his size, he plays the center position. His shoe size is 22 and he has large hands with an armspan of 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) and a standing reach of 10 ft 5 in (3.18 m).

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. Due to his height and reach, 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. Fall 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, 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.

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 U.S. college basketball history in a game against the UC Irvine. Both from Dakar, it was N'Diaye's brother, Ibrahim, who persuaded Fall to take up basketball. By his sophomore year, Fall became the tallest player in college basketball after N'Diaye declared for the 2016 NBA draft. During his sophomore season, Fall would make considerable improvements in his playing style. In 2017, Fall was named American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Fall grew to be an efficient player, ranking second nationally in field goal percentage as of January 2017. On April 5, 2017, Fall declared 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. On May 24, 2017, Fall withdrew his name from consideration for the NBA draft, to return to UCF for his junior year. During his junior year, Fall injured his shoulder, causing him to only play in 16 games, totaling 351 minutes. Coming into his senior season, Fall was named to the Preseason Second Team All-AAC. During his senior season, Fall helped lead the Knights to the NCAA Tournament and secured their first victory in program history with a win over VCU. In his final game Fall recorded 15 points and six rebounds, while the UCF lost to Duke 77–76.

College statistics

Source:

Personal

Fall is a devout Muslim. He maintained a 4.0 grade point average (GPA) in high school, while taking advanced mathematics and science classes. He became fluent in English within 8 months and scored in the 95th percentile on the SAT. A computer science major at UCF, Fall has aspirations of becoming an engineer for electronic companies such as Siemens or Microsoft, which currently makes a future in professional basketball unclear. Fall is not the only tall member of his family; his younger brother was reportedly 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) at age 7, while two of his uncles are 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m), but his extreme height stands apart even among them.

References

1. "Tacko Fall Bio - 2018-19 Men's Basketball Roster - UCFKnights.com | (M) Basketball". UCF Knights. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
2. ^ "The rise of 7-6 (and growing) Tacko Fall". Yahoo Sports. December 16, 2014.
3. "Mastering the Rebound - Pegasus Magazine". Pegasus Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
4. "Tacko Fall - 2015-16 Men's Basketball Roster - UCFKnights.com | (M) Basketball". ucfknights.com. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
5. Auerbach, Nicole (January 11, 2017). "Tacko Fall finds his footing for UCF, with room to grow as a player". USA Today.
6. ^ Borzello, Jeff (January 18, 2017). "There's more to UCF's Tacko Fall than his 7-foot-6 frame". ABC News.
7. ^ "UCF signs 9-foot-8 Tacko Fall, America's tallest grandpa". Orlando Sentinel. November 12, 2014.
8. "Tacko Fall". ESPN.
9. "Tacko Fall and Mamadou N'Diaye faced off Wednesday for the tallest head-to-head matchup in college basketball history". Washington Post.
10. Green, Shannon. "Tacko Fall wins AAC defensive player of year". Orlando Sentinel.
11. Romero, Iliana Limón. "Tacko Fall to test NBA Draft waters with option to return to UCF". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
12. "UCF 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall to explore NBA draft options". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
13. "Tacko Fall to Return to UCF for Junior Season". UCFKnights.com. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
14. Green, Shannon (January 20, 2018). "Tacko Fall is out for rest of UCF basketball season". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
15. ^ "Tacko Fall College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
16. Groeschen, Tom. "Cincinnati Bearcats edged out for 1st place in AAC men's basketball Media Day poll". Cincinnati.com. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
17. Bernstein, Dan (March 24, 2019). "Tacko Fall impacts Zion Williamson, but Duke wins tight March Madness battle". Sporting News.
18. "Tacko Fall Bio". UCF Knights. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
19. "Meet the 7ft 5in basketball star who is just 18".

External links

• Fox Sports New Interview Tacko's first
• UCF Knights bio
• NBADraft.net profile
• DraftExpress.com profile

• 1995 births
• Living people
• Centers (basketball)
• Senegalese expatriate basketball people in the United States
• Senegalese men's basketball players
• Senegalese Muslims
• Sportspeople from Dakar
• UCF Knights men's basketball players