Lee to Represent the SEC at 2016 NCAA Leadership Forum

PHOENIX – Kentucky men’s basketball junior forward Marcus Lee is representing the Southeastern Conference this weekend at the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Phoenix. Lee is one of two student-athlete representatives representing the league.

Lee was chosen as the SEC’s male representative. Only two student-athletes from one of the 14 schools comprising the league were selected. Lee is joined by Tennessee women’s soccer player Michel Christy. They were chosen as exceptional student-athletes who have shown outstanding leadership among their peers, institutions and communities.

This year’s forum started Thursday and will run through Sunday.

“The opportunity to attend the NCAA Leadership Forum will give me a chance to be with other leaders of my age and see how they deal with things that happen in their college lives,” Lee said. “It will also give me a chance to learn different ways to lead and help the people around me to the best of my athletic abilities.”

The NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum was created in 1997 and has hosted approximately 5,000 student-athletes since its inception. Student-athletes who attend the forum are taught leadership skills and given the chance to explore the relationship between personal values, core beliefs and behavioral styles. The forum also aims to give attendees a thorough understanding of the NCAA as a whole, the different divisional perspectives and the valuable role of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees.

Since his arrival to Kentucky, Lee has given more than 100 hours to the community in a variety of avenues. He has spearheaded projects such as God’s Pantry and the UK Blanket Project, where student-athletes made blankets for children’s hospital patients. He’s a two-time SEC Community Service Team member (2015 and 2016), serves as UK’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee treasurer, and has worked with various organizations such as God’s Pantry, the Salvation Army and Samaritan’s Feet.  

Lee is a two-time All-SEC Academic Honor Roll member and played in every game during the 2015-16 season. The Antioch, Calif., native recorded career highs in points, rebounds, blocks and assists and shot a team-best 68.0 percent from the floor, the best single-season field-goal percentage in school history with a minimum of 150 attempts during his junior season.

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