KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After another incredible season of basketball across the country, Small College Basketball has selected nine of the finest men’s basketball players who compete in the affiliations of NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA Division I, NAIA Division II, USCAA and NCCAA, as finalists for the 2019 Bevo Francis Award.
Northwest Missouri State senior guard Joey Witthus (Chanhassen, Minnesota) is one of the nine finalists. Witthus, the MIAA player of the year and most outstanding player at the MIAA tournament, averaged a team-best 21.1 points per game and shot 50.9 percent from the field. Witthus buried an-MIAA high 114 three-pointers, and he shot 45.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Witthus led Northwest in free throws made (170) and he shot 86.3 percent from the free throw line. Witthus earned a spot in the Elite Eight All-Tournament team after helping lead Northwest to the 2019 NCAA Division II national championship. Witthus has earned All-America honors from the NABC, Basketball Times and D2CCA.
This marks the fourth season of the Bevo Francis Award, as the award was previously given to Dominez Burnett of Davenport (Mich.) in 2016, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State in 2017 and Emanuel Terry of Lincoln Memorial last season.
“Congratulations to the finalists for the 2019 Bevo Francis Award,” said Small College Basketball Founder, John McCarthy. “This is an incredibly elite group of players, as they were selected from over 1,100 schools; as such, these nine players were selected from approximately 13,000 – 16,000 players throughout the country…..THAT’S elite!
“Not only did each player have an outstanding individual season, but they also led their respective team to a tremendous year. Every team represented by the finalists made their respective national tournament. I am very grateful to our National Awards Committee, as they have provided a tremendous amount of information and done background checks on every one of our finalists. Truly, it’s a tremendous honor to be named as finalist for the prestigious Bevo Francis Award, and I am very pleased for each of them, as they earned this distinction.”
Members of the Bevo Francis Award committee include the following coaches: Tobin Anderson – St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.), Gerald Holmes – Bloomfield (N.J.), Gary Stewart – Stevenson (Md.), Arlen Galloway – Wentworth (Mass.), Chris Briggs – Georgetown (Ky.), Bill Dreikosen – Rocky Mountain (Mont.), Klint Pleasant – Rochester (Mich.), Ryan Kane – Ripon (Wisc.), Mark Berokoff – Hillsdale Baptist (Okla.), Mike Donnelly – Florida Southern, Rhett Soliday – Vanguard (Calif.), Sam Hargraves – Alma (Mich.) and Ryan Looney – Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.).
The nine finalists for the 2019 Bevo Francis Award include:
Aston Francis, Wheaton
Jeff Garrett, LSU-Shreveport
Tim Guers, St. Anselm
Daulton Hommes, Point Loma Nazarene
Cameron Hunt, Southwestern
Jonathan Lawton, Florida Southern
Sam Vander Sluis, Cornerstone
Will Vorhees, Notre Dame College
Joey Witthus, NW MO State
The committee chose this elite group from over 1,100 colleges and universities and took into consideration individual statistics, previous awards, milestones and team success.
The 2019 Bevo Francis Award winner will be announced on April 8. The award will be presented to the award winner on May 11 at the SCB National Awards Show in conjunction with the SCB Alumni Association’s Celebration of the Game event at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Small College Basketball is very grateful to the University of Rio Grande and Sheward-Fulks Insurance for their sponsorship and support of the Bevo Francis award.
— Northwest Athletics —