TAMPA, Fla. — Everything you need to know about USF’s pint-sized point guard is in her first name.

Mama Dembele sets a tone for the Bulls with her tenacious, relentless style of play. And just like her namesake, she’s a nurturer. She takes care of her team.

“It don’t matter how big you are or how small you are, you really have to want it and sacrifice your body for the team,” she said. “I think that’s what really excites me cause then people can see that I really care about the team and I just want to set the tone from the beginning.”

Mama is 5-foot, 6-inches of pure pride and determination. Born in the West African country of Mali and raised in Spain, she brings a unique perspective and concentrated vision to USF.

Her American Athletic Conference leading 2.4 steals per game, coupled with her team-leading 5.4 assists per game have put the Bulls in position to make some noise at the conference tournament. Her performance this season earned her AAC Defensive Player of the Year honors.

“Not a lot of times they reward little guards playing defense,” Mama said. “It’s more about the blocks and those numbers are more impressive, so of course I was really happy.”

After transferring from Missouri, where she was the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and SEC All-Defensive Player, Mama’s loosened up on the court. Her new home with the Bulls gave her freedom to really let her game speak for itself.

“They just let me be myself,” she said. “They were like, we know you like to play defense, you like to gamble a little bit, go for the steals, so just go for it and we have your back.”

And she’s got the Bulls' back. And she’s got them on track to make a run at the AAC Tournament, just by being herself and playing her game.

“Just going out there and giving my all, it might be steals, it might be deflections, I don’t really care,” Mama said. “That is something that I really take a lot of pride in.”