ORLANDO, Fla. – Reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year and current UCF icon Tacko Fall will return to UCF for at least one more year.
“First off I want to thank God for putting me in the position that I’m in, but also I want to thank the NBA teams for the opportunity to showcase my skills for them during this process,” Fall said. “After getting all of the feedback I needed, I have made the decision to return to UCF and play in front of Knight Nation next season. I look forward to improving my game next year with the ultimate goal of playing in the NBA,” Fall said in an official statement.
The decision had come down to it’s deadline on Wednesday, closing out on the ten-day grace period granted to Fall by current regulations. UCF first announced the breaking news on their men’s basketball twitter account.
BREAKING 🌮 NEWS@tackofall99 is back!! #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/Xi4nppbznN
— UCF Men’s Basketball (@UCF_MBB) May 24, 2017
Fall announced on April 5th that he would be testing the draft waters and participating in the NBA Combine without an agent, leaving the door cracked for a return to the Knights if he so chose.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Tacko,” Dawkins said in a news release at the time of the original announcement. “He will be able to learn more about himself and his game during this process and we will be there to help him along the way.”
It is not such a surprise that the Senegalese Superstar is leaving at such a raw stage. He just barely falls into the top 100 of most NBA Draft Big Boards – CBS Sports has Fall ranked 47th among prospects, but NBADraft.Net ranks him 93rd, and Draft Express projects Fall as 92nd in the pecking order
His decision to return with the Knights run of success under Coach Dawkins in 2017, after Fall experienced such tremendous growth as a Center that he was awarded the AAC Defensive Player of the Year Award.
UCF will be releived to have their physically dominant centerpiece back – notably, his 26.3 minutes per game, his .715 FG%, his 9.5 rebounds per game and the 94 blocks he authoritatively dished out on the road to Madison Square Garden.
