Could late bloomer Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu lead USF women to unprecedented heights?

TAMPA — Her first name was inspired by a South African anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned and later murdered.

Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, a West Africa native born 11 years after the 1988 assassination of Dulcie September, takes pride in her namesake. Her pubescent insecurity came when classmates looked up to Dulcy herself. Literally.

“Some people were already making nasty comments about my height,” said Fankam Mendjiadeu, a USF graduate student raised in the western Cameroon city of Nkongsamba.

“They were calling me all kinds of names, like ‘giraffe’ or, I don’t know. … It was childish. But at that point of time, I was really frustrated about it because of my height. Because (people) kept calling me names and I didn’t like it.”

A lifetime later, the 6-foot-4 center’s resolve and skin have concurrently thickened. The physical attribute that once drew scorn has been channeled into a strength. Fankam Mendjiadeu, who once eschewed basketball because it would draw attention to her height, now embraces it.

The 25th-ranked Bulls (26-5, 15-1 American Athletic Conference) are on the cusp of an unprecedented season in part because of it.

“When people ask about Dulcy (and) her success here, she just works so hard,” said Bulls coach Jose Fernandez, whose team recently clinched its second AAC regular-season title and is the top seed in the league tournament, which begins Monday.

“Kids want to be good. They say they want to be great. But then they don’t do what greatness requires. This kid’s in (the gym) all the time — all the time.”

Can’t hinder her hustle

The nation’s third-leading rebounder (average 12.5 per game) entering the weekend, Fankam Mendjiadeu, 23, enters the AAC tournament with 388 rebounds, nine shy of the Bulls’ season record held by Alisia Jenkins and 23 shy of the conference season mark owned by Connecticut’s Napheesa Collier.

Her 23 double doubles are two short of Collier’s AAC season mark.

“She even dishes out assists (41 on the season),” said Aja Ellison, an ESPN color analyst who played at Maryland and Texas A&M. “You pass that thing in to her, she’s getting double-teamed, she finds her open players around the perimeter.”

Fernandez, who has nine foreign players on this season’s roster, said Fankam Mendjiadeu’s success on the glass transcends her height. He has had 6-foot-4 players on his team before.

But few have exuded her passion for the craft, which remains as profound as her French accent.

“To be a great rebounder, you want to have the want and the need and the desire to hunt balls down,” Fernandez said.

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“Great rebounders rebound down in their area, right? It’s easy when the ball’s there and you just go and get it. And that’s one thing that Alisia Jenkins did such a great job of, and Dulcy’s the same way. She chases balls down.”

Until ninth grade, Fankam Mendjiadeu had essentially boxed out athletics from her life, due in part to the bullying. At that point, after-school endeavors included helping her mom produce and sell her brand of bissap juice, a dark, cranberry-tasting drink.

For a time, she successfully resisted the coaxing of a physical education teacher, who implored Fankam Mendjiadeu (first name pronounced DUL-see) to give basketball a try.

“But the (coach) who kept pestering me, he went and talked to my dad,” said Fankam Mendjiadeu, a middle child (she has two brothers) whose mother stands well over 6 feet. “And I just couldn’t say no at that moment because my dad would be like, ‘You’ve got to try.’ "

Her first organized game, at around age 14, yielded success and encouragement. Fankam Mendjiadeu’s team didn’t win, but she had an instant clairvoyance with the point guard, who possessed the most skill by far on the team.

“So when I was playing with her, it was just like a 2-on-2 game. Everybody else didn’t matter,” Fankam Mendjiadeu said. “Just the chance to play with her made it really good at that moment. It was also like one of the things that kept me going because she really liked the game.”

Path to USF

Within a few years, Fankam Mendjiadeu had made Cameroon’s national squad, where she befriended former Memphis standout Ramses Lonlack, a teammate 10 years her senior who became a mentor of sorts. Lonlack accompanied her onto the Yuengling Center floor during USF’s recent senior-night festivities.

That connection led Fankam Mendjiadeu first to Morristown, Tennessee, where she had to enroll for a year at Walters State Community College when none of her credits from the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon transferred.

In her one junior college season, she averaged 15.5 points and 8.8 rebounds, and was named her league’s co-MVP.

She moved from there to Memphis, where she mostly sparkled over two seasons, averaging a double double (14.1 points, 10.6 rebounds) and earning second-team all-conference honors in 2020-21. When Tigers coach Melissa McFerrin — who had evolved into a de facto second mother to Fankam Mendjiadeu — retired at the end of that season, Fankam Mendjiadeu began exploring other schools.

“I really liked (USF),” said Fankam Mendjiadeu, slated to receive a masters degree in finance in the fall.

“We were in the same conference, and we already played against them, and we saw them. Also, when I was on social media, I always saw the kind of chemistry, the vibe they had. I remember one time I saw on Twitter (athletic director Michael Kelly) was traveling with them. And I was like, ‘Wow, the support system here is really good.’ "

Two seasons later, she has refined her footwork, ballhandling and resume. Fankam Mendjiadeu is a favorite to win the AAC’s player of the year honor, to be announced today, and appears a lock to be selected in next month’s WNBA draft.

“Both her hands and her footwork have just progressed, and that’s a credit to her,” Fernandez said.

But first, the one-time subject of juvenile derision has a chance to take down a few bullies in the NCAA Tournament. USF, which currently projects as a No. 6 or 7 seed, is seeking the program’s first Sweet 16 berth.

“I tell you what, hopefully she finishes the right way,” Fernandez said. “She’s going to be able to achieve her dreams of getting drafted and playing professionally for a long time.”

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.

AAC women’s tournament

Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas.

Monday: Temple vs. Wichita State, 2; UCF vs. Tulsa, 4; Cincinnati vs. Tulane, 6

Tuesday: Temple-Wichita State winner vs. USF, 1; SMU vs. Houston, 3; UCF-Tulsa winner vs. Memphis, 7; Cincinnati-Tulane winner vs. East Carolina, 9

Wednesday: Semifinals, 5 and 7 p.m.

Thursday: Final, 9 p.m.

TV/streaming: All games on ESPN+; final also on ESPNU

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