Point Park gets two players on Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List
PITTSBURGH -- Point Park University men's basketball is one of just 10 teams in the country to have two players named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List. Senior guard Jalen Stamps (20.1 ppg) and junior forward Jo Valrie (20.8 ppg) both made the list of the top players in the nation playing Small College Basketball (below Division I).
The Bevo Francis Award is in his eighth year of existence and is orchestrated by the organization Small College Basketball and founder John McCarthy. The award is presented annually to the player who has the finest overall season in Small College Basketball, which is comprised of all the levels below NCAA Division I.
The Top 100 Watch List was published on Jan. 15 with the Top 50 put out on Feb. 15, the Top 25 on March 15 and the winner named on April 4. The award is named after the legendary Bevo Francis, who played at River States Conference member school University of Rio Grande (Ohio) in the 1950s.
There were 29 players from the NAIA named to the Top 100 list. Stamps and Valrie give Point Park elite company as a team. There are only five NAIA programs in the nation who had two players named. That list includes Langston (Okla.), Lourdes (Ohio), Morningside (Iowa) and Oklahoma Wesleyan.
Valrie is on the Top 100 Watch List for the second year in a row. A 6-5 forward from Houston, Texas, he is averaging 20.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and shooting 50 percent from the field. Valrie is one of the few players in the NAIA averaging a double-double and is hitting on 38-percent accuracy from 3-point range and 82 percent at the foul line.
Stamps, from Indianapolis, Ind., joins Valrie on the watch list this year. A 5-10 point guard, Stamps is having an all-around year averaging 20.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. He has made 55 3-pointers in just 17 games to rank among the national leaders, and he is shooting 40 percent from long range. Stamps shoots 44 percent overall and connects at 76 percent from the foul line.
Stamps and Valrie lead Point Park to a 16-1 overall record and a 6-1 mark in the RSC. The Pioneers are currently "receiving votes" in the NAIA Top 25 Poll.
For the complete Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List and more information on the award, click the links below.
BEVO FRANCIS TOP 100 WATCH LIST (JAN. 15)
SMALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL WEBSITE