Small College Basketball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Awards Committee and Small College Basketball are extremely excited to announce the Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List for the 2023-24 season. Once again this year, the Top 100 Watch List consists of some of the top players from NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA. John McCarthy spoke about this years Top 100 list.

Congratulations to all of the 100 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List,” McCarthy said. “This is a very elite list of players, as there are only 100 players listed out of approximately 13,000 – 16,000 players that are playing at the various levels of small college basketball. While the Bevo Francis Award is ultimately an individual award, team success is a big component, so these players have helped their teams to tremendous success thus far this season.”

The Clarence “Bevo” Francis Award is presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. Considerations will be season statistics and individual achievements, awards, personal character and team achievements. This is an incredibly prestigious award, as this award will only be given to one player within Small College Basketball per season.

2024 marks the eighth year of the Bevo Francis Award. Past winners include Dominez Burnett of Davenport University in 2016, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State University in 2017, Emanuel Terry of Lincoln Memorial University in 2018, Aston Francis of Wheaton College in 2019, Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan University in 2020 and Trevor Hudgins of Northwest Missouri State University in 2022. In 2023, RJ Sunahara of Nova Southeastern was named the winner of the Bevo Francis Award. The award was not presented during the 2021 season. John McCarthy added this about the Bevo Francis Award:

“The Bevo Francis Award is the most prestigious award that is given to a player that has the finest overall season, based on our criteria, in a single season,” McCarthy said. “Importantly, I am very grateful to our National Awards Committee for their tremendous insight and information.”

On February 15, the list will be reduced to the Top 50 players. One month later on March 15, the Top 25 players will be announced. The finalists and Bevo Francis Award winner announcement release date is TBD. More information will be available in the coming months.

The Bevo Francis Awards Committee consists of the following coaches: Gary Stewart – Stevenson (Md.), Chris Briggs – Georgetown (Ky.), Bill Dreikosen – Rocky Mountain (Mont.), Mark Berokoff – Oklahoma City, Mike Donnelly – Florida Southern, Sam Hargraves – Olivet (Mich.), Richard Westerlund – Great Lakes Christian, Chase Tiechmann – Florida College, Aaron Siebenthall – Ottawa (Kan.), Mark Vanderslice – USC – Aiken, Matt O’Brien – Southwestern (KS), Chris Wright – Langston (OK), Ben Thompson – Emory & Henry, Justin Leslie – Midwestern State, Raul Placeres – Maryville College (TN), Chris Martin – Loras (IA), John Lamanna – Whitman (WA), Brian Miller – MSOE, Justin Downer – Point Loma Nazarene.