7’6 Mamadou N’diaye vs. 7’6 Tacko Fall is the must-watch game of the early college hoops season

On Wednesday in Orlando, the UC-Irvine Anteaters play the UCF Knights. You can watch it on ESPN3.

UC-Irvine has Mamadou N’diaye, a junior from Dakar, Senegal, who is 7’6. Here is what N’diaye looks like next to his teammates, who are taller than average humans:

Photo credit: Kevin Kuo, USA Today Sports

UCF has Tacko Fall, a freshman from Dakar, Senegal, who is 7’6. Here is what Fall looks like against a high school player who had the misfortune of attempting to guard him:

Only when next to each other do they look normal. UCF shared a picture of the two before the game:

Basketball is a sport that is played by extremely tall humans. But even so, players the size of N’diaye and Fall are rare enough that they change the way basketball looks.

I’ve watched N’diaye a bunch the past few years at Irvine, and although he’s not particularly strong or fast, he still dominates the nature of a game. Opponents have to change the way they score inside to avoid his incredibly long arms. His proximity to the rim makes scoring easy, so long as he can get the ball within seven or eight feet of the hoop. Even in last year’s NCAA Tournament against a Louisville team with Montrezl Harrell and other impressive big men, N’diaye’s mere presence kept the Anteaters close before they fell, 57-55.

I’m utterly fascinated by what it might look like to have to players of that size facing off against each other. Godzilla destroys cities by merely walking around by himself. What happens when there are multiple Godzillas?

N’diaye will probably outperform Fall -- he’s been at it for a few years, Fall has only played one collegiate game -- but it’s still a matchup the likes of which we won’t see for years, or perhaps decades. I’m going to gawk at it, and you should too.