Dearman’s Superb Season Earns Him Spot on Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List
Award goes to the top overall player within Small College Basketball
Kansas City, Mo. – Tyler Dearman (Greensboro, N.C./Southern Guilford HS) has been named to the 2023-24 Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List, as announced by the National Awards Committee and Small College Basketball on Thursday. As the top player on the no. 9 Guilford College men’s basketball team, Dearman has guided the Quakers to a 21-3 record this season and ranks among the nation’s leaders in scoring.
The award, considered by many as the highest honor in collegiate basketball below the Division-I level, considers a players’ season statistics in addition to their individual achievements, awards, personal character, and team achievements and is awarded to the top player across NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA, and the NCCAA, with this year being the eighth season in which the honor has been distributed. Traditionally dominated by Division-II players with five past winners playing at that level, Dearman has a chance to become the second D-III product to get the award after Aston Francis of Wheaton College received the recognition in 2019.
To make the top-100 watch list is a major accomplishment for any player as they are standouts among the approximately 16,000 men’s basketball players competing across the country at the various levels of small college basketball, and any further watch list recognition is held in even higher regard and Dearman has certainly earned it this season.
The Greensboro-product ranks 53rd in Division-III, and second in the super-competitive Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC), scoring 19.8 points per game with a .398/.330/.850 shooting line, thriving from the charity stripe where his conversion rate, 113 total makes, and 133 total attempts all rank in the top-80 nationally. Well-rounded, he also is the team’s top distributor averaging 3.0 assists per contest with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, ranks second on the roster by corralling 5.2 rebounds per game, and is among the best perimeter defenders in Division-III, anchoring a defense that allows just 55.7 points per game, the third-fewest nationally, while he collects 2.25 steals per contest, the most in the ODAC.
The Bevo Francis watch list will be trimmed down to 25 names on March 15th, with the finalists and winners to be announced in April.