Injury sidelines Fall for rest of season
UCF center Tacko Fall will miss the remainder of the 2017-18 basketball season due to a shoulder injury.
The 7-foot-6 center had been fighting through the injury all year, but the pain became too much to handle. Fall competed for 24 minutes during the Knights’ 49-38 loss to Cincinnati Jan. 16. Despite sparking some offense with three consecutive dunks late in the second half, he was sidelined in the final minutes of the game. It’s possible his shoulder could have played a factor.
Fall injured his shoulder last summer and will undergo surgery in about a week.
UCF is scheduled to play rival USF Saturday at 6 p.m. in Tampa. The Knights are looking to break a twogame losing streak. Currently, UCF is 12-6 overall and 3-3 in the American Athletic Conference.
“It’s unfortunate for any young man to miss this amount of time playing the game that he loves due to an injury,” head coach Johnny Dawkins said. “Our top priority at UCF is to maintain the well-being of our student-athletes, so our main concern right now is getting Tacko back to being 100 percent healthy.”
Fall’s injury marks a spell of bad luck UCF has experienced during Dawkins’ sophomore season as the Knights’ head coach.
First, Dawkins’ son, Aubrey, suffered a seasonending shoulder injury before the start of the season.
Star point guard B.J. Taylor injured his foot during the season opener against Mercer. He played his first game since Nov. 10 last week.
Backup point guard Chance McSpadden suffered a high ankle sprain and Fall missed a few games earlier in the season because of a hip injury.
Fall ends his junior campaign with 31 blocks and averaged 7.3 rebounds and, after Cincinnati, is the team’s leading scorer with 11.3 ppg. He is one of the nation’s best field-goal shooters having completed 76 percent of his shots through 16 games played.
The injuries certainly put a damper on a strong sophomore campaign for Dawkins following a breakout inaugural season where UCF made the NIT Final Four.
But players still have plenty of incentive to finish strong as Orlando is the host city for the AAC conference tournament this season.
“Injuries are unfortunate, but they are just part of the game. It pains me that I won’t be able to be out there and compete with my brothers; however, I’ll still keep cheering and being the best teammate I can possibly be,” Fall said. “Great things are still ahead for us.”