Southland Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

13. Marlain Veal

Veal is a 5’9 point guard from New Orleans who found collegiate success not too far from his hometown. One of Jay Ladner’s first recruits, he arrived at Southeastern Louisiana back in 2015 and would be a major part of the program’s success across the next four seasons.

He was already putting up decent production as a freshman and averaged 14.5 points a game already in his sophomore season. Those were two average seasons for the team, but Veal’s junior year was a major step forward. Southeastern Louisiana won the Southland regular season title, led by Veal’s 12.8 points and 6.1 assists per game, though they settled for the NIT. As a senior, he had a triple-double against Stetson and would total nearly 16 points per game as the Lions would finish 3rd in the conference in his final year.

Veal had impressive steals numbers and was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year as a junior. He earned a pair of First Team All-Southland honors and finished among the recent leaders in career assists and steals. He really spearheaded that regular season title back in 2018 and helped put the Lions in a much better position as a program with his leadership and athletic play.