HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana junior guard Marlain Veal starts the 2017-18 campaign where he left off in 2016-17 – on an All-Southland team.

    Veal, a native of New Orleans, was named to the Preseason All-Southland Conference Men's Basketball second team, the league announced on Tuesday.

    Veal was voted third-team All-Southland and honorable mention All-Louisiana following a sophomore season in which he helped lead Southeastern to its first winning regular season record since 2010-11. The Lions finished seventh in the Southland at 9-9 and advanced to the first round of the conference tournament before losing to Lamar to end the season at 16-16 overall. Southeastern's 4½-game improvement from 2015-16 ranked 66th in the country.

    Veal led Southeastern and ranked third in the league with 14.5 points per game. He was also fifth in the conference in assists (4.5 apg), seventh in steals (1.8 spg) and 10^th in 3-point field goal percentage (.400) and assist/turnover ratio (1.2). His 58 steals tied him for fourth on the Lions' all-time season list while his 144 assists were tied for the fifth most in program history. He enters the 2017-18 season 10th on the Lions' career list with 242 assists.

    "Marlain is incredibly deserving and he accepts these awards humbly, as he should," Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner said. "He recognizes that this also is recognition of his teammates and validity of the strides our program has made while he's been here. We think pound for pound, he's the best player in Division I."

    Veal appeared in 32 games with 31 starts in 2016-17. He paced Southeastern in assists in 22 games, in steals in 18, in scoring in 12 and in rebounds in three. He was the first Lion with three games of 28 or more points in a season since Trent Hutchin had three 32-point games during the 2010-11 campaign.

    Veal became the first Lion in more than five years to be named Southland Conference Player of the Week after averaging 25 points against Tulane and Jackson State. He later shared Co-Louisiana Sports Writers Association's Men's Basketball Player of the Week honors after averaging 28.5 points against Central Arkansas and Nicholls.

    Central Arkansas's Jordan Howard, Lamar's Colton Weisbrod, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Ehab Amin, Stephen F. Austin's TJ Holyfield and UIW's Jalin Hart were named to the All-Southland first team. Joining Veal on the second team were Abilene Christian's Jalone Friday and Jaylen Franklin, Houston Baptist's Josh Ibarra and Sam Houston State's John Dewey III.

    Southeastern hosts William Carey in an exhibition on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. The Lions officially tip-off the 2017-18 season at home against Centenary on Friday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
 
2017-18 Preseason All-Southland Conference Men's Basketball Teams
First Team
Name – Cl. – Pos. – School – Hometown
Jordan Howard* – Central Arkansas – Sr. – G – Chandler, Ariz.
Colton Weisbrod* – Lamar – Sr. – F – Nederland, Texas
Ehab Amin* – Texas A&M–Corpus Christi – Sr. – G – Alexandria, Egypt
TJ Holyfield* – Stephen F. Austin – Jr. – F – Albuquerque, N.M.
Jalin Hart* – UIW – Sr. – G – Houston, Texas
 
Second Team
Name – Cl. – Pos. – School – Hometown
Josh Ibarra* – Houston Baptist – Sr. – C – Angleton, Texas
Marlain Veal* – Southeastern La. – Jr. – G – New Orleans, La,
John Dewey III* ­– Sam Houston State – Jr. – G – The Bronx, N.Y.
Jalone Friday* – Abilene Christian – So. – G – Oklahoma City, Okla.
Jaylen Franklin – Abilene Christian – So. – G – Jacksonville, Ark.
* - Automatic selection, 2016-17 All-Conference team member