Emory University men's basketball senior Matthew Schner has been named as one of the 25 finalists for the 2022 Bevo Francis Award as announced by Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee Tuesday afternoon.
The 2022 Bevo Francis Top 25 Watch List consists of some of the top players from NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, USCAA and NCCAA. John McCarthy, Founder of Small College Basketball, had this to say about this year's Top 25 watch list:
"Congratulations to all 25 players on the Bevo Francis Award Watch List," stated McCarthy. "It's an incredible honor and achievement to be on this list, as it's a great tribute to individual accomplishment AND tremendous team success. Thank you to our SCB National Awards Committee, as this is such a challenging process."
This marks the third national award for Schner on Tuesday afternoon alone as he was tabbed to the CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team and was on D3hoops.com's All-Region First Team. Schner is also one of 11 men's finalists for 2022 Jostens Trophy, which recognizes the top all-around Division III player of the year, and was chosen as the University Athletic Association's Player of the Year previously this month.
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.
2022 marks the sixth 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 and Kyle Mangas of Indiana Wesleyan University in 2020.
Schner was among the initial list of the Top 100 finalists on January 15 but was not chosen as one of the Top 50 that was announced on February 15. A remarkably strong finish to the season enabled Schner to make the second-to-final watch list and is one of seven Division III players in the remaining field of finalists. The field will be narrowed down once more on April 2nd prior to the Bevo Francis Award winner being crowned on April 4th.
To view the full list of finalists, please click here.