ST. LOUIS -- Following a record-setting season which saw Wichita State climb as high as No. 2 in the national polls and reel off 35-consecutive wins before a loss, pollsters are slotting the Shockers -- ranked No. 11 nationally -- to win the 2014-15 Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball crown.

The Shockers received 45 of 46 first-place tallies and have placed three players on the five-player pre-season all-conference squad. The Shockers have been picked to win the MVC four previous times since 1985, and in those years, they finished second three times and first once (last year). Wichita State does, however, own eight outright MVC crowns.

It marks the third time in the past five seasons that Wichita State has been picked to win the league crown (2011, 2014, 2015).