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I posted this on another board, and I know we have a thread dedicated to the rest of college basketball...but this is a story that really intrigues me. We're almost half-way through the 2016-17 regular season, and Fall is legitimately one of the very best players in the country. He's averaging 15, 12, and 3 per game (23, 17, and 4 per 40 minutes), he's shooting 84% from the field (which I'm guessing is close to historic based on his usage), and his advanced stats - are off the charts. He's fourth in the country in wins shares per 40 minutes, second in PER, sixth in box +/-, and third in defensive rating.
The eye test will confirm all this. There is perhaps no visual more striking than that of Fall asserting his sheer size on both ends of the court. The weakside defenders that typically splurge to the sight of a post touch are ostracized by the horizon of his outstretched arms, and the strongside defenders that drift off shooters are helplessly bound by his maddening contentment to simply hold the ball until they choose.
UCF leads the country in FG% against, and Fall - seemingly just mobile enough to vaporize the paint of shifty guards and skilled pop men who try to bend him to his limits - might be the sort of bread who falls into the delicate range of dominant college players who, because of physical limitations, don't translate to the next level.
I could be wrong. I am curious to hear what the NBA guys think on this one. If I'm not wrong, however, and Fall lasts three or four years at UCF, you wonder what could be possible. Dawkins already has them well ahead of schedule - they rank 71st in KenPom, that being without their second best player, B.J. Taylor, also a sophomore, for the last month.
In the six games and change they played with Taylor, UCF won five by double digits and lost by 10 to Villanova. They lost ugly games to Penn and George Washington without Taylor, but have surged back in their last three by an average margin of 22 points, and yesterday, they led Temple something like 40-10 before relenting.
Taylor should be due back any day now, and as we await their trip to Hartford a week from today, you wonder if somewhere, buried beneath the horrid optics of our current purgatory - playing a directional school from Florida in front of 10,000 people on a Sunday afternoon against the NFL playoffs (knowing our luck, it will be the Patriots or the Giants) - lies something meaningful.
The eye test will confirm all this. There is perhaps no visual more striking than that of Fall asserting his sheer size on both ends of the court. The weakside defenders that typically splurge to the sight of a post touch are ostracized by the horizon of his outstretched arms, and the strongside defenders that drift off shooters are helplessly bound by his maddening contentment to simply hold the ball until they choose.
UCF leads the country in FG% against, and Fall - seemingly just mobile enough to vaporize the paint of shifty guards and skilled pop men who try to bend him to his limits - might be the sort of bread who falls into the delicate range of dominant college players who, because of physical limitations, don't translate to the next level.
I could be wrong. I am curious to hear what the NBA guys think on this one. If I'm not wrong, however, and Fall lasts three or four years at UCF, you wonder what could be possible. Dawkins already has them well ahead of schedule - they rank 71st in KenPom, that being without their second best player, B.J. Taylor, also a sophomore, for the last month.
In the six games and change they played with Taylor, UCF won five by double digits and lost by 10 to Villanova. They lost ugly games to Penn and George Washington without Taylor, but have surged back in their last three by an average margin of 22 points, and yesterday, they led Temple something like 40-10 before relenting.
Taylor should be due back any day now, and as we await their trip to Hartford a week from today, you wonder if somewhere, buried beneath the horrid optics of our current purgatory - playing a directional school from Florida in front of 10,000 people on a Sunday afternoon against the NFL playoffs (knowing our luck, it will be the Patriots or the Giants) - lies something meaningful.
