KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University junior Justin Pitts has been named the 2017 Bevo Francis Award winner, given to the nation’s top small-college basketball player.

Pitts put together one of the most historic seasons in Northwest history as a junior. He was the MIAA Player of the Year, the Basketball Time’s Player of the Year, the DII Bulletin Player of the Year and the NABC Player of the Year. He was named the Most Outstanding Player during the MIAA Tournament, the NCAA Central Regional Tournament and the NCAA Elite Eight. He was honored as a first team All-America performer by Basketball Times, the DII Bulletin, the D2CCA and the NABC. He broke five Northwest single-season records including points (754), field goals made (275), field goals attempted (553), assists (183) and games played (36). He also set the Northwest career scoring record at 1,929.

The Clarence “Bevo” Francis Award is presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. Bevo Francis played at Rio Grande College (now the University of Rio Grande) in Ohio in 1952-53 and 1953-54. When he arrived on campus, the school had 38 male students enrolled in the school and was on the verge of bankruptcy, planning to close its doors at the end of the 1952-53 school year. In the season before Bevo arrived at Rio Grande, the Redmen (now the Red Storm) had gone 4-19.

During his two seasons at Rio Grande, Bevo became the most popular basketball player in the world, and ultimately helped to save the school from bankruptcy. During his first year, the Redmen went 39-0, and Bevo scored 1,954 points and averaged 50.1 points per game. Against Ashland College (KY), Francis scored 116 points, which included 55 points in the final 10 minutes of the game.

— Northwest Athletics —