RALEIGH, N.C. – The Norfolk State men's basketball team was predicted to finish ninth out of the 11 MEAC teams in the preseason poll as voted by head coaches and sports information directors, the league announced at its tip-off luncheon on Tuesday.

The Spartans, led by first-year interim head coach Anthony Evans, are coming off an 11-19 campaign in 2006-07. NSU went 10-8 in the MEAC last season and finished the regular season in a five-way tie for third place.

Senior guard Tony Murphy (Paterson, N.J.) was named to the All-MEAC preseason first team. Murphy, an All-MEAC second team pick the last two seasons, led the Spartans in scoring for the second season in a row last year (16.5 points per game). That mark ranked him fourth in the MEAC. Murphy, one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference, has scored more than 1,200 points in his career and is on pace to break NSU's all-time records for 3-pointers made and attempted.

Murphy, who scored an school Division I record 43 points last season versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, is trying to become the first NSU player to be named to the All-MEAC first or second teams three times in his career. He is coming off of a stellar summer of 2007, when he was named the MVP of the Star-Ledger Rutgers College Player Summer League in New Jersey.

Joining Murphy on the preseason first team were Roy Bright of Delaware State, Rashad West of Hampton, Tywain McKee of Coppin State and Steven Rush of North Carolina A&T.

Bright was named the Preseason Player of the Year, and Hampton was predicted to win the MEAC.