Baye Fall wants to win everything he does. (Denver Prep Photo)
Five-star center Baye Fall and his Denver Prep teammates had quite a journey just getting to Paducah to participate in McCracken County Mustang Madness. Head coach Ray Valdez did not even make the trip because of a kidney infection that prevented him from flying on an airplane.
Fall, a major Kentucky recruiting target in the 2023 recruiting class, and his teammates had to battle major weather delays to get to Paducah. They finally flew into Nashville Friday and made the 2 1/2-hour bus ride to Paducah in time to play Minnesota Prep (Fall had 23 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two blocks in 81-66 win). Tonight, Fall and his teammates will take on Grind Session foe Dream City Christian.
The 6-11 Fall already has scholarship offers from Arizona, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Colorado, Georgetown, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Minnesota, Morgan St., South Carolina, Texas A&M and USC with other schools like Kentucky, Texas and UCLA showing a lot of interest. Fall has indicated he hopes to take visits to Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas during his junior season.
Fall is the top-rated center in the 2023 recruiting class and a top 10 player overall. He played at Lutheran High School in Colorado last year and averaged 22.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks per game on a state championship team. Fall moved to Colorado from Senegal at age 15.
“Bay just has a fantastic motor,” Valdez said via phone from Denver. “Any coach would be lucky to have a player with a motor like that. He loves competition. Even in practice when we are maybe a bit drill heavy, he will say let’s compete and get at it.
“If you put a score on it, he wants to win. Any sort of drill, his competitive spirit shows. He wants to win everything he does. That is what makes him who he is.”
Fall was named most valuable player at the Chick-fil-A Classic in South Carolina last week when he averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds per game to elevate his already lofty status because of the quality of competition he faced. However, Valdez said it was already obvious to him Fall was an elite shot blocker/rim protector.
“I would say that Baye is probably the best shot blocker I have ever seen,” Valdez said. “His timing is impeccable. His ability to get it at its peak is unbelievable because he has great timing. We are working with him to stay on the ground because he is such a fast jumper, he doesn’t need to gamble. He can wait to commit to the block and avoid fouls because he can wait and then jump and still make the play. Not everybody can do that.”
