Fall makes his move
Elhadji Tacko Fall has certainly been a prospect discussed often, mostly due to his 7-foot-5 height.
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Fall, a native of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, moved to Houston in October, 2012, and now attends Liberty Christian Prep in Tavares, Fla., about 45 minutes outside Orlando. Fall recently participated in the NBPA Top 100 camp in Charlottesville, Va., where he was named All-Camp.
"That (camp) was great," Fall said. "Last year I looked at highlights of players who went last year and I was wondering if I would make it this year, and I made it. That was a great feeling. I think I did great. I actually surprised myself."
His biggest takeaway from the camp?
"The classes. They were teaching us a lot of lessons of life at the camp."
Currently holding offers from UTEP, LaSalle, Xavier, Tennessee and Georgia Tech; Fall told us that he has started to think about taking visits.
"I haven't decided which ones yet, but I was thinking about visiting a couple of schools in July or August," he said.
Fall has made significant improvement since the high school season, where he seemed to run in slow motion and didn't rebound at the volume you expect from a 7-5 player. By early April with his Each One Teach One (E1T1) AAU team, his footwork was improved, his motor and rebounding were better and he was playing with more confidence.
"It has been a big adjustment," Fall said of playing AAU ball. "It has helped me with my development a lot. Better competition and better coaching. We won a couple of tournaments and we qualified for the Peach Jam."
E1T1 Elite head coach Steve Reece has been impressed with Fall this season.
"Tacko Fall has the desire and work ethic to be great," Reece said. "He's a kid that comes to practice ready to learn and improve each time. He's always the first one there and the last one to leave. He's a great kid to be around too."
Fall said he's been able to adapt to his new country fairly easily.
"The transition to living in America wasn't that bad. I had to adapt to the language, the food, new people, almost everything," Fall said. "I think I've improved a lot since I arrived, even more than I thought I would. My strength, my confidence."
In the classroom, Fall told us the adjustment wasn't as difficult as you might think.
"School was easier here than in my country," said Fall. "I haven't had a lot of problems with academics. I like math, chemistry and biology."
Russ Wood is a basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and Inside the Gators. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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