ST. LOUIS -- For just the second time in MVC history, a league coach has won the MVC Coach of the Year award three-straight years, as Wichita State men's head coach Gregg Marshall has earned the honor for 2013-14. Marshall joins Drake legendary Hall of Famer Maury John, who won three-straight honors in the league from 1968-70.
Marshall received 39 of a possible 40 first-place tallies and 118 total points to outdistance all other vote-getters. Voting was conducted by league coaches, media and sports information directors. Barry Hinson of Southern Illinois finished second in the voting (40 total points), marking the second-straight top-three finish for the Saluki mentor.
Marshall is among four other Shocker mentors to win the MVC Coach of the Year award, including Ralph Miller (1954), Gary Thompson (1965), Eddie Fogler (1987) and Mark Turgeon (2006).
The Shockers have reached unprecedented heights under coach Marshall, setting an NCAA record this year by winning 31 regular-season games without a loss. Marshall has guided Wichita State to a school-record fifth-straight campaign with 24 or more victories and a school-record fifth-consecutive season with 12 or more league wins. WSU's 117 wins in a four-year span is a league record, and currently trails only Kansas for wins in the last four seasons.
In his initial campaign, he won 11 games, but he has taken his team to postseason play in each subsequent season, including a tremendous run to the championship of the 2011 NIT, at-large bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and a berth in last year's Final Four in Atlanta.
He is a 1985 graduate of Randolph-Macon and becomes only the third person in league history to earn the league's top coaching honor three times (the aforementioned John and Ken Hayes, who coached at Tulsa and New Mexico State). He's the first Shocker head coach in the 107-year history of the Missouri Valley Conference to earn back-to-back Coach of the Year honors, let alone three in a row.
In addition, Shocker starters Fred VanVleet, Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker -- all named to the league's first-team unit -- become the first trio from the same team to earn first-team all-MVC honors since 1973 (and in that season, the league selected a 10-person First Team.)
VanVleet was named the 2014 MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year and is the fourth different Shocker to earn the league's Player of the Year award, joining Antoine Carr (1983), Xavier McDaniel (1984, 1985) and Paul Miller (2006). The Rockford, Illinois native averaged 11.9 points, 5.29 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game during the regular season.
Junior Darius Carter and VanVleet were named to the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference All-Bench Team and the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Most Improved Team respectively.
-WICHITA STATE-
