The Bevo Francis Top 100 watch list was released. Here’s what to know

Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee released the first Bevo Francis Watch List for the 2025–26 season. The top 100 watch list highlights many of the nation’s top student-athletes competing across DII, DIII, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA programs. The award is named after Rio Grande legend Bevo Francis, who still holds the DII single-game scoring record (113) and season average record (46.5 points per game). Nominees are based on season statistics and individual achievements, awards, personal character and team achievements. 

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Earlier this year, we took a look at 15 potential Bevo Francis Award hopefuls. Twelve of those players — Benjamin Bill, Jack Browder, Dillon Claussen, Carl Cleveland, Dallas Graziani, Cam Lowe, Amondo Miller Jr., Pace Prosser, Antonio Pusateri, Marcus Tomahsek, Ross Reeves and A.J. White — made the list. Jaquay Randolph of Southern Wesleyan, who averages nearly 18 points per game with a DII-best 16.0 rebounds per game; Felician’s Tristan Harcourt; and Boubacar Djigo from Concord (WV), who averages 15.5 points and 13.1 rebounds per game while shooting 60.3 percent from the floor, were surprisingly omitted. 

The list will continue to be whittled down, with it being cut in half to 50 on Feb. 15. One month later, on March 15, the top 25 will be released, and on April 4, Small College Basketball will announce the finalists, with the winner to be announced on April 6, the day after the 2026 DII men’s basketball champion is crowned. 

The Bevo Francis Top 100: DII by the numbers

• Forty-four of the top 100 hail from DII men’s basketball programs, more than 2025 (38) and 2024 (42). 
• Of those 44, 15, or a whopping 34 percent, come from just six of the 298 DII men’s basketball programs. 
• Three DII schools have three representatives. Daemen has Benjamin Bill, Justin Hemphill and Zach Philipkoski. Washburn has Jack Bachelor, Dillon Claussen and Jeremiah Jones. Lastly, defending champion Nova Southeastern has Dallas Graziani, Jaxon Nap and Ross Reeves. 
• Anderson (SC) is one of three schools that is represented by two players. The Trojans see Osmar Garcia-Araujo and A.J. Wright make the top 100. Last year’s national runner-up, Cal State Dominguez Hills, has both Jalen Brown and Josiah Sanders represented. Lubbock Christian sends both Amondo Miller Jr. and Antonio Pusateri. 
• One of those 44 is hopeful of becoming the seventh DII player to win the award. Previous DII men’s basketball players to win include Dominez Burnett of Davenport in 2016, Justin Pitts of Northwest Missouri State in 2017, Emanuel Terry of Lincoln Memorial in 2018, Trevor Hudgins of Northwest Missouri State in 2022, RJ Sunahara of Nova Southeastern in 2023 and MJ Iraldi of Nova Southeastern was named the 2025 winner. 
• There is only one freshman among the top 100, and he hails from DII. Lazerek Houston from Central Missouri, who is averaging 19.7 points per game with a team-high 99 assists, is the lone rookie in the conversation.

The Bevo Francis Top 100: The list

(* = DII player)