In My Words | Amadou Fall
01/10/2019 | 8:49:00 | Men's Basketball
I'm Amadou Ndiaye Fall, but everyone calls me Am. I'm from Senegal, which is in West Africa. I have three brothers and two sisters, and I'm the youngest one. My dad is a retired principal, and my mom is an advisor in high school.
I started playing basketball two years ago. I was doing other sports. I started karate when I was 4 or 5 years old. My dad started me on that. I played soccer in the streets like every other African kid with my friends.
My brother used to play basketball at school and on the streets with his friends, and I would watch. I liked it, and one day they told me to get a ball and a pair of shoes. We didn't have basketball shoes, but my mom gave me shoes in exchange for getting a good grade in math.Â
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I started playing basketball when I was 15, and that's when I started growing. I found out about an Academy call SEED, and I showed it to my parents and they liked it. That summer they recruited me to go there. That's how it all started.
I wasn't very good. That's when I saw the real world of basketball with the rules and everything, way different than the streets. I started getting into it, and they brought me to the BWB camp. NBA players have been there, and my second year, I got a scholarship in St. Louis. That's how I came to the U.S.Â
I never thought about coming to the U.S. until I started playing basketball. Once you get there, the only goal in your life is to go to the U.S. to play basketball. I just followed the path.
There are a lot of different languages, and I speak four. In Senegal, you start learning English in high school, but I don't know if that really helps. I went to a six-week summer class in Chicago to learn English when I got to the U.S.
We started practicing right when I got to St. Louis, and coaches were there every day. One day, we were having an open gym, and Coach Beane was there. Then, he was there another day with Coach Autry. That's when I got offered by SIU. I started searching the internet about it, and I liked it.
I tore my ACL last year, and I was scared, but my family back home kept pushing me, and coaches, especially here, told me that I would come back even stronger. It felt like everybody was backing off me after I was injured; but now, it just makes me glad I'm a Saluki. Go Dawgs. I always believed I was going to be fine. I couldn't do anything about it, so I just kept working, trying to get it stronger. And It's really starting to feel good.
On the court, I like playing on the post, and I love the relationship with the guards, the pick-and-rolls, and everything that helps my team win. I met the older guys on my visit, but I hadn't met any of the other freshmen until I got here this summer. Sam and Dave were the first ones in the dorms, and they were pretty cool with me. We all like Chili's, so we went to Chili's all the time together.
Since I speak four languages, I've at least been able to speak at least one language in every country I've visited. But in Cuba, they speak Spanish, and I couldn't communicate with people. That was fun, though. We went everywhere together, and I played American football in the ocean with Sam, Darius, Dave, and Gooch. I was the quarterback. They were all bad; I was the best one.
It's next-level here. The way we practice is way different compared to back home. The speed, playing with a clock, and everything.
Beyond basketball, I'm just trying to do well at school with the grades. I want to get a degree in finance because my parents always tell me that everybody knows that a basketball career won't last forever, and we all are going to get older one day.Â
On the court, we just want to make history, and then we freshmen will be the next generation. We're watching our six seniors, seeing what they're doing, and then we'll follow their path. When our time comes, we're going to kill it.
Amadou
I started playing basketball two years ago. I was doing other sports. I started karate when I was 4 or 5 years old. My dad started me on that. I played soccer in the streets like every other African kid with my friends.
My brother used to play basketball at school and on the streets with his friends, and I would watch. I liked it, and one day they told me to get a ball and a pair of shoes. We didn't have basketball shoes, but my mom gave me shoes in exchange for getting a good grade in math.Â
Â
I started playing basketball when I was 15, and that's when I started growing. I found out about an Academy call SEED, and I showed it to my parents and they liked it. That summer they recruited me to go there. That's how it all started.
I wasn't very good. That's when I saw the real world of basketball with the rules and everything, way different than the streets. I started getting into it, and they brought me to the BWB camp. NBA players have been there, and my second year, I got a scholarship in St. Louis. That's how I came to the U.S.Â
I never thought about coming to the U.S. until I started playing basketball. Once you get there, the only goal in your life is to go to the U.S. to play basketball. I just followed the path.
There are a lot of different languages, and I speak four. In Senegal, you start learning English in high school, but I don't know if that really helps. I went to a six-week summer class in Chicago to learn English when I got to the U.S.
We started practicing right when I got to St. Louis, and coaches were there every day. One day, we were having an open gym, and Coach Beane was there. Then, he was there another day with Coach Autry. That's when I got offered by SIU. I started searching the internet about it, and I liked it.
I tore my ACL last year, and I was scared, but my family back home kept pushing me, and coaches, especially here, told me that I would come back even stronger. It felt like everybody was backing off me after I was injured; but now, it just makes me glad I'm a Saluki. Go Dawgs. I always believed I was going to be fine. I couldn't do anything about it, so I just kept working, trying to get it stronger. And It's really starting to feel good.
On the court, I like playing on the post, and I love the relationship with the guards, the pick-and-rolls, and everything that helps my team win. I met the older guys on my visit, but I hadn't met any of the other freshmen until I got here this summer. Sam and Dave were the first ones in the dorms, and they were pretty cool with me. We all like Chili's, so we went to Chili's all the time together.
Since I speak four languages, I've at least been able to speak at least one language in every country I've visited. But in Cuba, they speak Spanish, and I couldn't communicate with people. That was fun, though. We went everywhere together, and I played American football in the ocean with Sam, Darius, Dave, and Gooch. I was the quarterback. They were all bad; I was the best one.
It's next-level here. The way we practice is way different compared to back home. The speed, playing with a clock, and everything.
Beyond basketball, I'm just trying to do well at school with the grades. I want to get a degree in finance because my parents always tell me that everybody knows that a basketball career won't last forever, and we all are going to get older one day.Â
On the court, we just want to make history, and then we freshmen will be the next generation. We're watching our six seniors, seeing what they're doing, and then we'll follow their path. When our time comes, we're going to kill it.
Amadou
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