The American Athletic Conference coaches slotted Wichita State seventh in their annual preseason poll, released Wednesday morning.
The Shockers did not have a representative on the 10-man preseason all-conference squad.
The league's coaches are taking a wait-and-see approach to Wichita State (23-8, 11-7 AAC), which returns three starters from last year's fourth-place squad and adds a battle-tested point guard in UConn graduate transfer Alterique Gilbert. However, the Shockers must also replace four rotation players, including all-conference center Jaime Echenique.
WSU has history on its side. Shockers teams have won at least 22 games in each of the past 11 seasons and last finished below sixth-place in a conference race during the 2007-08 campaign while competing in the Missouri Valley.