RJ Sunahara Recognized as Bevo Francis Award Winner

HOUSTON, TX. – Small College Basketball and the National Awards Committee announced on Monday, April 3, the winner of the 2023 Bevo Francis Award – RJ Sunahara, a redshirt-junior forward from Bay Village, Ohio. The Bevo Francis Award recognizes the best small college basketball player in the country.
T
he 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 is only given to the finest men’s basketball players in the country who compete in the affiliations of NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA Division I, NAIA Division II, USCAA and NCCAA.

Head Coach Jim Crutchfield, in his fifth season as the Sharks bench boss, guided the NSU to the first NCAA National Championship in program history, has coached Sunahara and elevated his game throughout his Sharks career. “RJ is such a great team guy; he plays hard every day, is unselfish and fun to be around,” said Crutchfield. “He’s the type of guy that makes me look forward to coming to work every day, When he says he represents our team, when he accepts this award, he means it.”

Sunahara has earned a plethora of awards during the 2022-23 season and closes his campaign with the 2023 Bevo Francis Award. The redshirt junior guided Nova Southeastern to 36-0 record, marking the sixth undefeated national championship season in the history of NCAA Division II basketball. Sunahara started 34 games for the Sharks, averaging 18.9 points, 5.4 rebounds-per-game, while shooting 59.9% from the field and leading the team in blocks (54). The Ohioan put together one of his best games in the Division II National Championship, scoring 28 points, going 12-17 from the field, and grabbed nine rebounds.

At the conference level, Sunahara earned the second First-Team All-Sunshine State Conference recognition of his career and was named as the SSC Player of the Year. The redshirt junior also earned  the honor of being named D2CCA South Region Player of the Year and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Player of the Year.

Sunahara is one of the most decorated student-athletes in the history of Nova Southeastern Men’s Basketball, and in his career has won: Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year (2019-20), Sunshine State Conference Defensive Player of the Year (2021-22), Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year (2022-23), South Region Player of the Year (2022-23), NABC National Player of the Year (2022-23) and now, the Bevo Francis award.

Members of the Bevo Francis Award committee include the following coaches: Tobin Anderson – St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.), Gary Stewart – Stevenson (Md.), Chris Briggs – Georgetown (Ky.), Bill Dreikosen – Rocky Mountain (Mont.), Ryan Kane – Ripon (Wisc.), Mark Berokoff – Oklahoma City, Mike Donnelly – Florida Southern, Rhett Soliday – Vanguard (Calif.), Sam Hargraves – Olivet (Mich.), Stacy Hollowell – Loyola (La.), Stephen Brennan – Babson, Richard Westerlund – Great Lakes Christian, Chase Tiechmann – Florida College, Bart Lundy – Queens (N.C.), Aaron Siebenthall – Ottawa (Kan.), Tae Norwood – Humboldt State, Justin Parnell – Oregon Tech, Mark Vanderslice – USC – Aiken and Grant Leep – Seattle Pacific. 
 

Print Friendly Version

Source