Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List
Small College Basketball announced today the Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List for the 2023-24 season. The Top 100 Watch List consists of some of the top players from the NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA. Representing the Ohio Athletic Conference are John Carroll's Luke Chicone and Mount Union's Christian Parker. The two basketball student-athletes were also on last season's list, as Chicone made it to the Top 50 and Parker finished in the Top 25.
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.
Chicone is the John Carroll's leading scorer, shooting an average of 19.2 points per game. The guard is second in the OAC in scoring, first in assists (5.1 per game), and first in steals (2.6 per game). Chicone has scored double figures in all but one game this season, including 20 or more points in six games. A starter at guard for all 15 games, Chicone is shooting 45% overall on the year and 41% from the three.
This season, Parker is averaging 18.1 points per game and 8.0 rebounds per game, both are top five in the OAC. He has 25 blocks and 15 steals on the season and is on pace to become the career leader in both points and blocks at Mount Union. Parker has also been named the OAC Player of the Week twice this season and been named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week this 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 February 15th, the list will be reduced to the Top 50 players. One month later on March 15th, 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.
