Just in time for the official start of the Ryan Miller era of Racer basketball, the 2025-26 Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Media Poll voted Murray State men’s basketball fourth overall, and awarded senior transfer Fred King a Second Team honor.
This poll was organized by Paul Oren, the editor of TheVictoryBell.com, a website that covers Valparaiso University athletics. Oren contacted at least one sports journalist to represent each school in the conference to participate in the poll in response to the Missouri Valley Conference releasing a Preseason Watch List, compiled by each teams’ coaching staff, rather than a Preseason All-Conference team, breaking previous precedent.
Among the 20 ballots that were cast, at least one journalist represented every school in the conference, and almost half of them were student journalists. Participants used an 11-1 scale to rank the teams, with 11 points given to the projected champion and one point given to the projective last place team. Players were voted on with a 10-1 scale, with 10 points being awarded to the Preseason Player of the Year and one point being assigned to the 10th-best player in the conference.
Murray State was among five schools that were chosen to take the conference championship title in March. Fourteen ballots ranked Illinois State first, while Murray State and Bradley each secured two championship team votes.
Bahama native King was recognized as the second player on the Second Team after a 15-point and 11 rebound performance against Xavier in an exhibition match. King is one of two Racers to follow head coach Ryan Miller from Creighton, where he played under two-time All-American center Ryan Kalkbrenner.
One poll voted sophomore Layne Taylor as Preseason Player of the Year and finished one vote shy of getting Second Team recognition. The Atlantic Sun Conference All-Freshman Team guard is joining the Racers after starting in 20 games at Central Arkansas, where he averaged 17.4 points per game.
The Racers have proven themselves to be a threat after topping the Xavier Musketeers 75-70 and the Northern State Wolves 112-74 in their two exhibition games.
The 101st season of Racer basketball officially begins on Monday, Nov. 3 in Omaha at the Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon against Omaha in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.