Setting table
Fall a force early, often for Knights in win over USF
Sometimes you forget Tacko Fall has only been playing basketball for seven years.
It’s is easy to overlook while he is dominating American Athletic Conference competition, as he did Wednesday night.
The 7-foot-6 senior center was a leading force all evening long as the UCF men’s basketball team rolled to a 78-65 win over the South Florida Bulls.
Fall scored a season-high 21 points and set the tone early, scoring six of those points in the opening four minutes. The Knights grabbed a 13-0 advantage during that time and pretty much rolled from there, never letting their lead drop to fewer than nine and going up by as many as 26 in the second half.
The convincing victory moved UCF to 18-5 overall and 8-3 in the American Conference standings.
“Really happy that our guys came out with a sense of urgency,” coach Johnny Dawkins said. “They came out and they were focused right from the start.”
Dawkins has kept hitting one specific point in recent weeks: You want to be playing your best basketball at this level in February. Wednesday’s effort was arguably UCF’s best performance in conference play this year. It was undoubtedly that for Fall.
It took the big man just eight minutes of action to log 10 points and eight rebounds as he schooled USF’s inexperienced front line.
“He played 26 minutes; I thought it was probably the most assertive 26 minutes he’s played since I’ve coached him here,” Dawkins said. “I felt his presence throughout the entire time he was out there on the floor. That’s a tribute to him.”
Said Fall: “I feel like I can do it every game, but you never know what teams are going to throw at you. Today, the double teams were slow to get there, so I was able to get to my spots a lot quicker. That helped, but I feel like I can do it every game.”
And yet, there are times when Fall looks overwhelmed on the court. In those times, recall that Fall didn’t begin playing organized basketball until he was 16.
“He’s still young and he’s figuring things out,” Dawkins said. “You’re going to continue to see him improve.”
This particular game went so well for Fall that he even set a benchmark from the foul line, sinking a season-high nine free throws. Yes, he took 21 attempts, but that average is well above Fall’s season-long mark of 30.4 percent.
His troubles as a foulshooter have been a source of exasperation for fans and mockery for opponents. But Fall says he is still trying to regain what a 2018 shoulder operation took away from him.
“Every day, I try to work on my free throws,” he said. “We all know that last year, I had shoulder surgery, so coming back, I kind of lost that muscle memory. I just need to put in the time, get it back and every day, I’ve just been getting better at it.”
Dawkins always touts Fall’s work ethic when asked about his low percentage, and maybe that work is starting to bear fruit. In Fall’s past four games, he has made 15-of-32 free-throw attempts. That’s not something to brag about for most players, but for him, it’s a significant improvement.
In fact, one of Fall’s free throws Wednesday was downright unforgettable.
At the 8:59 mark of the second half, the box score shows that Fall made a free throw. What that box score doesn’t say is that his shot hit the back of the rim, bounced straight up into the air, landed and bounced on the frame of the backboard at least three times before falling into the basket. Nothing but net.
“Shooter’s touch, right?” Fall said with a smile.
“I think that one deserves to be on SportsCenter,” Dawkins exclaimed.