The NBA season is already rolling, and UCF fans have two familiar names to watch as the year unfolds. Taylor Hendricks and Tacko Fall both entered the league through the Knights, and both open 2026-27 in very different spots.
Hendricks is back in Memphis for his fourth NBA season after being traded from the Utah Jazz to the Grizzlies last season. Between the two teams, he appeared in 59 games, averaged 7.4 points and 3.7 rebounds, and shot 45.9% from the field. With Memphis alone, he started 11 of the 26 games he played.
The challenge for Hendricks this season is the numbers game in the frontcourt. Memphis added Cameron Boozer with the third pick in the 2026 NBA Draft and also brought in Jerami Grant in a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, giving the Grizzlies more options up front. In their season-opener against the Jazz, coach Tuomas Iisalo left Hendricks on the bench and leaned instead on Boozer, Grant, Jaylin Wells, Zach Edey and Quinten Post.
That role would fit the pattern of Hendricks’ career so far. Since going ninth overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, he has not been an every-night fixture, and last season’s 59 games were the most he has played in a single year. He made six starts for Utah before the trade, but unless Memphis’ frontcourt gets hit by injuries, those opportunities are likely to stay limited.
Fall’s path back to the NBA is much different. The former UCF center is back in regular-season basketball in the United States for the first time since 2022, at the same time his ex-Knights teammate B.J. Taylor is being inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame.
Since his last NBA run, Fall has spent most of his time in the Chinese Basketball Association, playing for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, Nanjing Monkey Kings and most recently the Ningbo Rockets. He also logged 18 games with the New Zealand Breakers in Australia’s NBL.
Philadelphia first brought him in on an Exhibit 10 deal in September, reuniting him with former Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown. But injuries in the Sixers’ frontcourt to Ariel Hukporti, Adem Bona and Dominick Barlow led to his deal being converted to a two-way contract, which lets him move between Philadelphia and the Delaware Blue Coats. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin put the value of that kind of roster spot plainly in a Reddit AMA on Wednesday: "Two-way players are ineligible to play in the postseason, so it's really just having another big body for 10 minutes here and there when there are fouls or injuries,"
Even with that opening, Fall’s spot is far from guaranteed. A team can waive a two-way player and replace him whenever it wants, and Fall has his own injury issue after being ruled out of the Sixers’ first two games with a quadriceps injury, according to Rotowire. That means his first NBA appearance since Dec. 30, 2021 could still be waiting - and it could also be short-lived.
Fall played four seasons at UCF from 2015 to 2019 and left with plenty on his résumé: AAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, All-AAC Third Team in 2019, and a key role on the team that delivered the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in 2019.
In Other News...
No. 2 BYU Walks Into A Dangerous Spot Against Desperate UCF
Scott Frost and his staff have spent the week looking back at the same painful theme for UCF: the finish. The Knights have had chances against top-25 opponents this season, only to see those games slip away late, and the recent second-half issues against Houston and Oklahoma State have made closing time a focal point as they get ready for a visit from No. 2 BYU.
For a program still searching for its first signature Big 12 win, this is the kind of spot that can define a season. Players and coaches have talked about sharper execution and a tougher mentality when games tighten up, because UCF knows it cannot afford another fade if it wants to turn a promising opportunity into something bigger. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Backfield Suddenly Has A New Spotlight At UCF
BYUs backfield has taken on a different look heading into Saturdays trip to Orlando, with the Cougars suddenly needing to lean on a runner who was not expected to be the focal point this week. Sione Moa has been cleared to return after working back from a knee injury and acute compartment syndrome, giving BYU another option as it prepares for a game in which it is favored by 7 points against UCF.
The larger concern for the Cougars is the absence of their usual lead back. LJ Martin is expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks because of an ankle injury, leaving BYU to sort out how it wants to distribute carries in one of its more important road spots of the season. For UCF, that adds another layer to a matchup already shaped by the challenge of facing a ranked favorite with a backfield puzzle to solve. [Read more 🡒]
UCF Looks Far More Dangerous Than Early Projections Suggest
The early read on UCFs roster never really captured how much more seasoned it could look by the time Johnny Dawkins finished reworking it. The Knights added a wave of transfer help in Arturo Dean, Cayden Vasko, Dior Johnson and Isaiah Malone, giving the group a mix of ball-handling, shot creation and interior depth that should make this team far less predictable than the usual preseason guesswork suggested.
Just as important, UCF is not leaning entirely on newcomers. Riley Kugel, John Bol and Carmelo Pacheco give the Knights a returning base to build around, and that combination of experienced holdovers plus portal additions is what makes the roster more intriguing than the outside projections. The next question is how quickly all that new talent settles into roles and whether the staff can turn the added depth into something more than paper promise. [Read more 🡒]