MONTGOMERY—Alabama State University's men's basketball team has been picked to finish sixth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Men's Basketball Preseason Poll.
 
The men collected 50 points in the poll that was voted on by the conference's head coaches.  Prairie View was picked to finish first collecting 81 points and four first place votes followed by Southern who received 69 points and one first-place vote.
 
The rest of the poll has Jackson State picked third with 65 votes and a first-place vote, Texas Southern also picked up a first-place vote and 64 points in their fourth-place pick, followed by Alabama A&M in fifth-place with 51 points and also picking up a first-place vote.
 
Following ASU is Arkansas-Pine Bluff in seventh with 45 points, Alcorn State in eighth with 42 points and also a first-place vote.  Grambling State picked up 18 points to finish ninth and Mississippi Valley grabbed 12 points.
 
“We really don't worry about the preseason predictions,” Head Coach Lewis Jackson said.  “We want to get better every day and win all of our conference games and if we can do that then where we finish will take care of itself.
 
The Hornets are in their first full week of practice and have seven players back from last season led by forward Phillip Crawford, a Third-Team All-SWAC pick a year ago.
 
ASU has welcomed 16 new players to the team and this first week has Head Coach Lewis Jackson and his staff doing a lot of teaching.
 
“We have 16 new players this season so we are spending a lot of the first week teaching our offense and defense,” Jackson said.  “The older guys already know what we expect on both ends of the court, but with so many new faces, we have to stop a lot in practice to go over things, but we knew we would have to do this coming into a season with so many new faces.”
 
ASU will begin the 2012-13 season on Oct. 31 when they host Huntingdon College in an exhibition game beginning at 6 p.m.