High school basketball: Baye Fall carving his path from Senegal to the NBA at Denver Prep Academy

From February 2019 to now, Baye Fall has quickly established himself as one of the premier basketball prospects in the nation. The 7-foot Senegal native is the No. 6 overall prospect in the Class of 2023, according to 247Sports.

Last year in his first full season of high school basketball, Fall led Lutheran (Parker, Colo.) to the state championship and earned Colorado Player of the Year honors with averages of 22.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks while shooting 65 percent from the field.

"Winning a state championship meant a lot to me. I have won a lot of individual trophies, but never won a team championship. It was one of the best days of my life and I learned a lot about being a leader," said Fall.

The 7-foot, 205-pound center is averaging 17 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks early this season for Denver Prep Academy (Denver), which plays in the Grind Session.

"Denver Prep plays a nation schedule and I want to see where I am at for the future," he said. "I transferred so I could compete against the best competition on the Grind Session and work on getting better for the next level."

Although it's hard to deny his dreams of playing in the NBA, Fall had a unique outlook on his future endeavors.

"The NBA is obviously the best league in the world and that is my biggest goal, but my father is an architect, so that is what I would like to do some day," Fall said. "I believe I can do both at the same time pretty much, or have that opportunity if I want it. I also might wait until I retire, but I definitely want to be an architect some day."

While the dominant post player makes things look easy on the court, he sometimes struggles with adjusting to life in America.

"I feel like I got way better and have a bright future in basketball, but it is a long process and there is a lot of obstacles," he said. "I am just trying to be careful, work hard and do whatever I have to do.

"Daily life is a lot different now, I am very locked into school and basketball is all day. It is hard sometimes, I miss hanging out with my friends in Senegal, but this is what it has to be like for me."

Fall is a name to watch in the future, as the projected lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft currently holds 11 Division I offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Georgetown, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Memphis, South Carolina, UCLA and USC.