LORMAN &8212; She&8217;s first team Preseason All-SWAC, has people talking and should be the heir apparent down on the blocks for the Alcorn Lady Braves.

But 6-2 Rasaan Powell may be nervous.

That&8217;s hard to fathom for a big post player who may actually play bigger than she is. Powell came off the bench in each of the last two seasons and was an imposing force down low en route to becoming the team&8217;s best rebounder.

But the junior hears people talking. And she&8217;s working hard in practice every day to prepare for today&8217;s season opener at Stephen F. Austin.

&8220;I&8217;m going to have to work a whole lot more,&8221; the Columbia native said. &8220;People are expecting a lot out of me. I&8217;ve got to live up to the hype. I&8217;ve got to live up to what people are saying. They&8217;re putting a lot of responsibility on me this year. Now I have to be an example.&8221;

Powell is one reason why coaches aren&8217;t fretting too much over losing four starters off last year&8217;s SWAC Championship team. Powell, like others on the bench last season, earned valuable minutes on the floor relieving those four seniors and was a major factor coming off the bench.

But Powell went through a stretch where she started in place of senior Candace Roberts, and her 9.7 rebounds per game was a team-high. Not bad for someone who only started 14 games.

&8220;&8217;Shan doesn&8217;t seem to be the shy person,&8221; Alcorn head coach Shirley Walker said. &8220;But she does have a little shyness in her. She&8217;s trying to play the role of mother of his basketball team, and I see that in her. really &8212; and the team, I think &8212; expect a lot out of &8217;Shan this year. We&8217;re hoping she&8217;ll be able to stand up to her potential.&8221;

It may be Powell&8217;s year to man the inside following the loss of Tnonealyer Powers and Roberts, both four-year starters at the four and five spots. For a team that was inside-dominated on offense last season, Powell&8217;s role may be big early in the season until an outside games develops.

Powell may be leery of the expectations, but everyone else knows what she can do.

&8220;She&8217;s a beast,&8221; senior Natasha Dennis said. &8220;I have to give her her props on that one. She&8217;s got great hands. She has to work on her fouls, which she has. But she has such a big body, and maybe they&8217;re just running into her.&8221;

Still, Powell knows things won&8217;t be any easier. For starters, she&8217;s having to battle an improved inside game just on her own team this season with 6-5 Tina Huff back from her red-shirt season considerably stronger and physical.

Ebony Franklin may be one of the more improved players on the team, Walker said, and LaToya Wyly can be just as physical down low as Powell.

&8220;I have to set an example,&8221; Powell said. &8220;If I can&8217;t do it, they&8217;ll say I can&8217;t do it. But we&8217;re real deep in the post position. We have five or six players. I&8217;m going to have to score every time I&8217;m in the purple. I can&8217;t pass the ball.

&8220;You have to be physical down there. In high school it was a lot different &8212; everyone was smaller than me. Huff is 6-5, and I have to use my body as a big girl. You have to play very physical.&8221;

At times Powell ran into foul trouble coming off the bench, but other times she played well defensively. She ran into foul trouble in the Lady Braves&8217; loss at home to under-manned Mississippi Valley was third on the team last year with 59 fouls.

But other times she was valuable off the bench and did well when teams tried to take it inside against the Lady Braves&8217; inside game hoping to draw a foul and go to the line.

&8220;One thing I do worry about is her getting into foul trouble,&8221; Walker said. &8220;I mentioned to her last year &8212; me and the other coaches &8212; that if &8217;Shan didn&8217;t play, it was her fault. The officials came in about a week ago and went through some things to get ready for the season, and I wanted them to get us ready. I hope that will help.&8221;

Powell will get the start tonight alongside Franklin along with Dennis at small forward and Tanika Nunez and Tiffaney Smith at guards. That lineup may change, especially down low where Wyly and Huff will push for playing time, as the season goes along.

In this season where all but one starter is new, the team may need some time to iron everything out.

&8220;Everybody is coming together,&8221; Dennis said. &8220;It&8217;s quicker than I thought it would be. There are still a few minor things we have to do, but that can be taken care of in no time. We&8217;ve got a lot more scorers than we had last year.&8221;