Kansas City, MO – Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee are pleased to announce the Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List for the 2023-24 season. After the Top 100 Watch List was announced on January 15th, 2024, the National Awards Committee had the difficult task of narrowing the list down to the Top 50. The Top 50 Watch List is made up of some of the best players across the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA. John McCarthy touched on the this years Top 50 list:
“Congratulations to all 50 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List,” mentioned McCarthy. “This is an incredible honor, as this represents 50 players out of approximately 13,000 – 16,000 players that are competing at the small college levels. Each player is in the midst of an outstanding season, both individually and as a team. I am very grateful to our SCB National Awards Committee for such tremendous input on this list.”
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.
On March 15th, the Top 25 players will be announced. On April 5th, the finalists of this year’s award will be announced, followed by the Bevo Francis Award winner being crowned on April 8th.
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.
To stay up to date on all things Small College Basketball or to learn more about the Bevo Francis Award, please head to smallcollegebasketball.com.
2023-24 Bevo Francis Award Watch List
Trevor Baskin 6’8″ Jr. CO Mesa
Drew Blair 6’5″ Sr. MN-Duluth
Octavio Brito 6’4″ So. Keene State
Martez Brown 6’9″ Sr. Lincoln Memorial
Frank Champion 6’7″ Jr. North Georgia
Luke Chicone 5’10” Jr. John Carroll
Cevin Clark 5’11” Jr. Southwestern (KS)
Toru Dean 6’0″ Sr. Langston
Tyler Dearman 6’3″ Sr. Guilford
Connor Dillon 6’2″ Jr. Winona State
Ely Doble 6’6″ Sr. Morningside
Wes Dreamer 6’7″ Sr. NW MO State
Gus Etchison 5’11” Jr. Marian
Spencer Freedman 6’0″ Sr. New York U
Zach Goodline 6’1″ Sr. Huntington
CJ Hall 6’2″ Jr. SAGU
Jake Hilmer 5’11” Sr. Upper Iowa
Jahn Hines 6’4″ Jr. Christopher Newport
Jeff Hunter 6’7″ Sr. Keene State
Zawdie Jackson 6’0″ Jr. West Georgia
Josiah Johnson 6’1″ Sr. Mary Hardin-Baylor
KJ Jones 6’6″ Sr. Emmanuel (GA)
Tavon Jones 6’3″ Sr. Nichols
Cameron Kahn 6’6″ Sr. Dallas Baptist
Zach Laput 6’4″ Sr. Bentley
Jaden Lietzke 6’7″ Jr. Oklahoma Wesleyan
Drew Lutz 6’1″ Sr. Bethel (IN)
Elijah Malone 6’10” Sr. Grace (IN)
Jayvon Maughmer 6’6″ Sr. Cedarville
Anthony Mazzeo 6’3″ Sr. Case Western Reserve
Jaylin McCants 6’6″ Jr. Dubuque
KJ McClurg 6’3″ So. Cal PA
Erza McKenna 6’9″ Jr. Mobile
Josh Omojafo 6’5″ So. Gannon
Jalen Overway 6’9″ So. Calvin
Christian Parker 6’6″ Jr. Mount Union
James Paterson 6’7″ So. STAC
Ben Pearce 6’1″ So. Emory
Logan Pearson 6’4″ Jr. Wisconsin-Platteville
Ethan Porterfield 6’8″ Sr. IUP
Anthony Roy 6’5″ Jr. Langston
Tyler Schmidt 6’4″ Sr. Olivet Nazarene
Jeremiah Sparks 6’3″ Sr. Oswego State
DJ Talton, Jr. 5’10” Jr. OK Wesleyan
Jo Valrie 6’5″ Jr. Point Park
Joshua Van Gorp 6’10” Sr. Central (IA)
Alex VanKalsbeek 6’6″ So. Northwestern (IA)
Jaden Wells 6’1″ Jr. Central Oklahoma
Malik Willingham 6’3″ Jr. Minnesota State
Larry Wise 6’5″ Sr. West Texas A&M