Nation’s No. 1 center plays in Kentucky this weekend. He’s ‘definitely interested’ in UK.
The Denver Prep Academy high school basketball team rang in the new year on an airplane over the weekend, traveling late at night amid a busy schedule that is taking them all over the country in their inaugural season.
Coach Ray Valdez said the coaches and players were reminiscing about their best years as the countdown to 2022 was on. The team’s biggest star — junior center Baye Fall — said 2016 had been his favorite year so far.
“Why?” they asked.
“Because it was when I started playing basketball,” the just-turned 18-year-old said.
“And we were all like, ‘You’ve only been playing basketball for six years?!’” Valdez recalled. “And that’s something that’s kind of a telling story about Baye — about how hard he works, about how often he’s in the gym. Sure he’s tall and he’s long and he’s extremely athletic … but people are going to see that he has so much room for growth.”
Fall, who was born in Senegal and moved to Colorado when he was 15, has already come a long way in his relatively short basketball career. The near-7-footer is the No. 6 overall player — and No. 1 center — in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He was named a first-team sophomore All-American by MaxPreps.com last season after averaging 22.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game while leading Lutheran High to a state championship.
For his junior season, Fall made the move to the newly established Denver Prep Academy, which has games against top competition all over the country. This weekend, the team will be in Paducah for the Mustang Madness event at McCracken County High School.
In those games, Fall is scheduled to face five-star UCLA center recruit Adem Bona on Friday and five-star center prospect Yohan Traore, who is still uncommitted, on Saturday.
Win or lose, Fall will certainly be up for the challenge.
“With his personality and his mentality — I’ve compared that tenacity to kind of a Kevin Garnett mentality. His motor is just unreal,” Valdez said. “That’s one thing that, no matter what, you know you’re going to get with him is a motor. He’s a fierce competitor. In everything that we do, he’s just a competitor. The way he competes is probably his No. 1 calling card.”
That was on display last week at the Chick-fil-A Classic in South Carolina, where Fall earned tournament most valuable player honors at a showcase stacked with national talent.
At this early stage of Fall’s development, his shot-blocking skills stand out the most.
“I would say that Baye is probably one of the — if not the — most elite shot-blocking amateurs in the country,” Valdez said. “His timing is impeccable. His ability to get it at its peak is unbelievable. … He has that timing. He’s learned to stay on the ground a little bit better until the shot gets off the ground, because he’s a pretty fast jumper. And he’s so long, so he can wait that little fraction of a second longer to make sure the shot is going up.”
And while there’s still plenty of room for growth, Fall is far from being simply a hard-working “project” on the court.
Defensively — in addition to those rim-protection skills — he’s adept at reading ball screens and dribble handoffs, and he has the length, athleticism and footwork to switch on and stay in front of guards away from the basket.
Offensively, he’s developing a jump shot that extends beyond the three-point line, and he’s shown an increased comfort level in taking trail threes and pick-and-pop shots from range. He runs the floor well for a player of his size, and he can function around the basket within the half-court offense, especially in a setup with penetrating guards.
“In the modern way now that the game’s played — when you space a guy opposite in the dunker’s spot, which Kentucky (does) … Baye really fits that mold really well,” Valdez said. “He’s perfect in that role.”
Recruiting Baye Fall
Fall doesn’t appear to be in any hurry with his college recruitment.
Several high-major programs have already extended scholarship offers — with Texas and UCLA both joining that list last month — but Fall has yet to take any recruiting visits and doesn’t seem to be nearing any kind of trimming of his list of options.
Valdez said that — with Fall’s game continuing to expand — the star player wants to wait a little while longer before he looks deeper into his next step. The coach estimated Fall was at about 6-11, possibly 7-feet tall, with a weight in the range of 210-215 pounds. Adding strength is a major point of emphasis moving forward, and putting on some bulk should lead to even more growth in his post skills on both ends of the court. Meanwhile, his game away from the basket continues to evolve.
“With a ceiling that high, I think he’s definitely going to wait until that talent starts to pop a bit more so he can really see who’s interested and who’s real about their recruiting with him,” Valdez said.
Kentucky, it’s becoming clear, is likely to be in that category.
UK assistant coach Chin Coleman made the trip to Denver in the opening days of the fall recruiting period in September to meet with Fall and his coaches. That visit went well, according to Valdez, who said that UK is one of the campuses Fall wants to see when he’s ready to start taking official visits.
Fall recently listed Kentucky, Arkansas and Auburn as three schools that would be at the top of his visit list, when that time comes. Baylor, Kansas, Memphis and Southern Cal are among the many others that have already extended scholarship offers.
The 2023 class is looking like it will be lacking in instant-impact post players — compared to other recent recruiting cycles — making Fall an even bigger priority for the schools that pursue his commitment.
For the time being, the Wildcats have his attention.
“He’s definitely interested in Kentucky,” Valdez said. “I think for every kid, Kentucky’s kind of the gold standard. If Kentucky is interested in you, it kind of gives you that badge that kids can wear around the AAU circuit, and when they’re going to these camps. ‘Yeah, I’m a Kentucky recruit.’ And that’s worth its weight in gold out there in the recruiting world.
“So, yeah, his interest is in it. And I know he’s very grateful for the fact that they’ve come out and shown so much interest. And for Baye — when we’ve talked about it — he’s very honored, and it’s a very humbling experience for him.”
