If there’s one thing clear so far about Bob Dunn’s first Cleveland State roster, it’s that the Vikings won’t be hurting for defense.
The latest support for that statement comes from Fatou Sane, who announced her transfer commitment to CSU on Saturday.
Sane (pronounced SAH-nay) spent the first two years of her college career at Duquesne, where the six-foot guard averaged 15.6 minutes per game in 2025-26. That somewhat-limited playing time masks some very impressive production as a stopper, including 3.2 steals per 40 minutes, the 105th-best average in the entire country.
That statistic has become something of a trend among next year’s Cleveland Staters. Alexa Hocevar, for example, had 2.2 steals per 40 minutes at IU Indianapolis two years ago, while returnee Paula Pique was good for 2.6 in her first season as a Viking.
For context, now-departed Jada Leonard snagged 3.5 steals per 40 minutes this past season, while flirting with the national leaders in thefts per game. Certainly, none of Dunn’s additions or retentions are quite at the level of Leonard, who recently signed with Youngstown State through the portal, but CSU’s collective numbers are bound to remain impressive.
Of course, Sane is a little bit more than a quick pair of hands. In fact, DU coach Dan Burt has called her a Swiss Army knife that can play and defend all five positions on the floor. Undoubtedly, her strong frame, contributing to a 2.4 percent block rate – a number that sits among Division I’s top quartile – was on Burt’s mind at the time.
Sane has also proven a consistent rebounder, one who had some nice outings down the stretch for the Dukes, after receiving expanded minutes. In a victory against Fordham on February 14th, the Senegal native bucketed a career-high 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, while adding six rebounds and four assists. She had nine tallies and six boards in a blowout loss to Rhode Island on January 18th.
As a freshman in 2024-25, Sane contributed to a 20-win squad that received an invitation to the WNIT. The Dukes’ postseason that year, of course, ended inside the Wolstein Center with a dramatic 55-52 loss to Cleveland State. Sane did not play in that contest, though she participated in 25 others, including an eight-point outing in just 12 minutes against George Washington. She had 11 total steals that year, which doesn’t sound particularly impressive on its own, but it divides out to 3.1 per 40 minutes, consistent with her sophomore number.
Sane played at J. Addison School in Markham, Ontario, Canada immediately before heading to Duquesne. In 2023, she was the defensive MVP of the prestigious Basketball Without Borders Girls Global Camp, sponsored by both the NBA and FIBA.
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