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 300 lb (136 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 as a freshman for the UCF Knights.[1]

Early life

Born and raised in 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 - DAKAR, known as ISTI-DAKAR, in Senegal.

Tacko joined ISTI-DAKAR and was brought to USA by Simmons with the help of his sports foundation, The Ben Simmons Sports Foundation.

Tacko lived with Ben Simmons for 1 year in Houston and played for his first organized basketball school team there. He trained with Simmons and the likes of NBA top 50 player Hakeem Olajuwon.

Tacko then was sent to Florida for his final two years of high school, and where he plays college basketball for University of Central Florida.

High school career

Due to his size and eight-foot 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, Texas where his team won the State Championship 2012. Tacko played with ISTI Allstars summer travel team. He played in several NCAA certified events.

Fall then attended with Liberty Christian Preparatory School in Tavares, Florida. With nearly 40 different schools expressing interest in him,[2] Fall committed to the University of Central Florida, who had officially signed him on October 28, 2014. He would play with the UCF Knights under head coach Donnie Jones.[3]

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.[4][5] Fall has aspirations of becoming an engineer for companies such as Siemens or Microsoft, making a future in professional basketball unclear.[1] His younger brother is 5'9", while two of his uncles are 6'8".[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The rise of 7-6 (and growing) Tacko Fall". Yahoo Sports. 16 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 "UCF signs 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, America's tallest high school basketball player". Orlando Sentinel. 12 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "Tacko Fall". ESPN.
  4. ↑ "Meet Tacko Fall the 7ft 5in basketball star who is still growing". Daily Mail Online.
  5. ↑ "Tacko Fall Bio". UCF Knights. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ 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

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.