KJ Jones of Emmanuel Named to Bevo Francis Award Top 50 Watch List
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee announced the Top 50 watch list for the 2022-23 Bevo Francis Award and KJ Jones of Emmanuel made the list.
Jones continues to lead NCAA Division II in points per game (25.8) and total points (593). He is also fifth in Conference Carolinas in rebounding at 7.6 per game. The junior from Atlanta, Georgia is shooting at a 48.6 percent (168-for-346) clip and is ranked fifth in the league in free throw percentage (.843). He is hitting 40 percent (43-for-107) of his 3-point attempts and is seventh in the league in assists per game (3.5) and fifth in steals at 1.8 per contest.
The 2023 Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List consists of some of the top players from NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA.
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.
2023 marks the seventh year of the Bevo Francis Award, after the award was not presented in 2021. 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 Huggins of Northwest Missouri State in 2022.
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. On April 1st, the finalists of this year’s award will be announced, followed by the Bevo Francis Award winner being crowned on April 3rd.
The Bevo Francis Awards Committee consists of the following coaches: Gary Stewart - Stevenson (MD), Chris Briggs - Georgetown College (KY), Bill Dreikosen - Rocky Mountain (MT), Mark Berokoff - Oklahoma City, Mike Donnelly - Florida Southern, Sam Hargraves - Olivet, Stephen Brennan - Babson, Richard Westerlund - Great Lakes Christian, Chase Teichmann - Florida College, Aaron Siebenthall - Ottawa (KS), Tae Norwood - Humboldt State, Mark Vanderslice - USC - Aiken, Grant Leep - Seattle Pacific, Matt O'Brien - Southwestern (KS), Chris Wright - Langston (OK), Nathan Champion - LeMoyne.
Read the full release and see the full 50 here.