Alcorn State has not even kicked off fall football practice yet, but it’s the Alcorn basketball team receiving recognition as senior forward Marcus Fleming of Fayette was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s basketball preseason player-of-the-year by &uot;Lindy’s Sports Annual&uot; magazine.

&uot;We expect Marcus to live up to being most valuable player in our conference,&uot; said Alcorn State assistant basketball coach Sam West, a native of Natchez. &uot;He has shown a lot of leadership and dedicated himself this summer to the game of basketball on and off the court.&uot;

Fleming was both a preseason and regular season first-team All-SWAC selection during the 1999-2000 season.

The 6-foot-8 inch, 225-pound Fleming averaged 16.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while shooting 53.9 percent from the floor while helping to lead the Braves to their second straight SWAC regular season title in which they had a 19-10 overall record along with a 15-3 mark in conference play as a junior.

Fleming was ranked in the SWAC in all three categories with being second in rebounding, third in field goal percentage and seventh in scoring. Fleming also earned All-SWAC tournament honors at this past year’s tournament.

Fleming was named the league’s Player of the Week three times while being named to the Lobo Classic All-Tournament team.

In addition, he was on the Dean’s List with a 3.00 grade point average this past spring as a general studies major.

&uot;We went to Marcus a lot last year and we’ll definitely be going to him more this year,&uot; West said. &uot;He will be our go-to guy. We’re looking for him to do an outstanding job in the upcoming season.&uot;

As a sophomore, Fleming was part of a Braves team what posted a 23-7 overall record along with a 14-2 league mark in league play in which they won both the SWAC’s regular season and postseason tournament titles along with a birth to the NCAA tournament.

Fleming was named to the SWAC’s Honorary All-Rookie team while averaging 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game during the 1997-98 season.

Fleming was named Chevrolet Player of the Game for Alcorn State while coming off the bench to score 10 points on five-of-eight shooting against Stanford in the West Region of the NCAA tournament.